The founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, said: ‘Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of “crackpot” than the stigma of conformity… Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.’

Many of us have good ideas that never go anywhere. At some point, you must reduce your list to the best idea for you. This isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Start with obvious ideas that can’t work because of budgets, timing, or lack of resources. Next, pool ideas that may be good, but don’t solve your particular problem. Timing is everything, and some great ideas are just ahead of their time. So keep an ‘idea file’ and pull some of them out again next year. But here’s a flashing red light: when your circle of advisors help you generate good ideas yet never see you acting on them, they will lose interest and you will end up on your own.

The Bible says, ‘Faith without works is dead.’ (James 2:26 ^KJV) So commit yourself to a life of creativity, original thinking, and action! If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. The classic advertisement for Apple Computer says it best: ‘Think different!’ Don’t take yourself too seriously! If an idea doesn’t work, don’t fall apart. Tick it off your list and move on to the next one. At some point you may discover that your good idea—is actually a God idea. When that happens, it changes everything!