By: Maureen van Althuis our new contributor.
As fish in the ocean, ideas float around us in the open air. Hence, the creation of ideas is not our share. We are not the ones who create ideas, we are the ones who need to catch them and materialize them. Our purpose is to turn ideas into actions and let others profit from it. This is what most people don’t realize.
Many professionals and managers approach ideas as being theirs and are afraid someone will take the idea from them. They hold their thoughts for themselves, not involving others – or even worse, involving others at a moment that it’s too late – and therefore they confine potential.
Realize that ideas cannot be taken. Creations can! They can be copied or reproduced. Successful entrepreneurs know they don’t have to be afraid. They know what they are capable of and act alike. They also know that the source of creativity is inexhaustible.
But there are conditions. To be able to catch ideas, one needs to be open. This is critical to being creative. A diver needs equipment to be able to go deep into the ocean to see all the fish that are living there, far below sea level. The better equipped, the deeper he can go. Creative entrepreneurs have the equipment to see ideas.
But how many times do people get stuck with just the idea, holding on to their fantasies? Is it their insecureness, their ego or their individuality that accounts for their lack of turning what they think into practice?
After being open to ideas it is necessary to direct the spirit to grab the ideas. If you don’t get them, they pass by and float around until someone else, who does have the powers, takes the idea and makes it concrete. A diver can, in first instance, only see the fish. Willpower and attention are needed to also catch them. One has to be hungry for that matter.
Knowing you can’t deal with the world on your own helps to materialize an idea. One needs the social environment to help out. A fish can’t live without water and attention after being caught. Successful creative entrepreneurs make creations complete and involve other people. They know how to make connections and involve the right persons by looking at their needs. Also like fish, ideas are subject of evolution and under influence of change. After finding the right persons the just amount of attention and add-ons the idea will turn into material success. It may become an aquarium, for others to see what the diver first saw.
In the train I found the Dutch magazine ‘Architectenweb Magazine’ of February 2009 and read an interview with architect Robert Winkel of Archined. He is one of those successful entrepreneurs. In the article he states he opposes copyrights on buildings. After finalizing the construction of a building, in his vision, it’s open to external influences. Might this be the reason for his great success and the fact that three of his projects are mentioned in the architecture yearbook? And is the fact that I don’t hear anymore of some of the lousy entrepreneurs I worked with subject to their behaviour of not listening to constructive advice, not sharing their thoughts or not involving others to help put their ideas into practice?
Stop whining about the fish you have seen, let’s put them on the menu.
Living her dreams and inhabited the characteristics of her favourite animal, the butterfly, Maureen contributes to the world by creating, connecting and expressing good nature. She graduated in Communication Studies from the University of Amsterdam and perceives herself as the eternal student. Finding her peace in listening to birds and philosophizing with friends. She is co-founder of Artistieke krachten and Rightside and founder of Fiero Creations. She works on projects in which people are to use her knowledge. Maureen travels to SFO and BCN, listens to Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Jenna Attison, wears Kookai and Anti-flirt, eats salads and Asian cuisine, reads Aristotle and Vanity Fair, rides horse and bicycle and refuses to be subject of destructive emotions.