All the good ideas are taken

If Apple thought all the good ideas were taken, they would never have invented the iPad.
If Elon Musk thought all the good ideas were taken, he wouldn't be revolutionalizing the car industry.

Most of us don't work for Apple or Elon Musk. But we all need good ideas in our lives.

Do you want to come up with some good ideas for your job or your business?

Yesterday we did a 10 minute brainstorming session for a yoga studio. The question was what could the company do to become more remarkable. There was one rule. No one could say that an idea was bad.

Here were some of the answers:
Do a cleanse as a value add.
Have a juicer and sell juices.
Have a Facebook page...

And the list went on, boring as hell.

Then one guy said: Offer yoga to lumbersexuals!

It made no sense but we weren't allowed to comment on the idea. A bunch of people giggled imagining grown men with full beards in yoga pants.

Then a couple more boring ideas hit the table, until someone said offer yoga dating.

Then another person said offer yoga glow in the dark sessions.

Then another person said beat the Guiness Book of World Records for the most people at once doing Yoga on the beach.

Every time someone laughed at an idea, we knew we were on to something. It might truly be a bad idea. At least it got our attention, we laughed and we wanted to know more. Wanting more, lowering inhibitions gave permission to others to be ridiculous.

It is in the ridiculous that the great ideas will emerge.

If the yoga girls are serious about opening this business, they have some work to do. But the worst thing they can do is be like every other yoga studio in the world. It's too hard to stand out. It's too hard to get noticed. It's too costly in time and money to wait for customers to figure out how good you are (if you are good).

These ideas are just ideas. The real work is in the execution.

The exercise demonstrated what can happen when people aren't limited by their inhibitions, their ridiculousness and negativity.

Be ridiculous. The answers are waiting for you there.