“I can’t help falling in love with you.”

Just like Elvis' song, we suffer from the same plight, but instead of falling for some heartthrob, we can’t help falling in love with our ideas!

Don’t get me wrong, original ideas are great. But too many innovators make the grave mistake of thinking their first idea is their best idea. They fall hard and fast and quickly marry their ideas.

I get it, it’s easy to come up with an idea and become attached. You’re proud of your idea and keep it to yourself because you’re scared that if other people see it, they’ll dissect it, want to change it, or maybe even steal it. Even though it seems like this is the key to preserving your idea, falling in love with your ideas, especially the first one, is one of the biggest mistakes you can make!

Your first idea is just that, it’s an idea, a starting point. It’s not fully formed and definitely isn’t the end goal. The reality is that to get the full potential out of any ideas, we need to push it, tweak it, and test it out. We need to put it out in the world and observe how the universe reacts.

Falling in love with your ideas is the easiest way to get a mediocre result.  

So how do you NOT fall in love with your ideas and create relevant and sustainable solutions? Start by trying these five steps:

• Acknowledge your first idea is just a start, not the endpoint
  
  
• Create a tangible prototype of your idea
  
  
• Share the prototype with people and observe how they interacted with it and how they liked, changed, and questioned
  
  
• Ask people to build on your idea and share their insight
  
  
• Let the feedback inform how you tweak your idea and move forward

There you have it, five ways to stop falling in love with your idea. And remember, the world doesn't lack ideas. The world lacks well-developed ideas.

Keep inspiring creativity! 

- Karen