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Ideas Are Your Friend. Don't Kill Them.

I had a very enjoyable email conversation with an ActiveRain member yesterday.

I had mentioned that I was noticing an unwilingness to engage in a true exchange of ideas. Some are, of course, but many appear to fear idea exploration that takes them out of their comfort zone, or ideas that they assume will only lead them in a direction that might harm their current understanding or reality.

It's common for people to get defensive around an idea.

I said some things in the email and the response was, "Listen, why don't you take everything you just said to me and write a post about it?"

I thought, "hmmm... that's a good idea."

SO I DID. You may find it here.

Jeff Turner aka respres

Posted by Jeff Turner on 02/02/2007 01:15 PM

Comments (26)

ideas, jeff turner, innovation, technology

Originally posted at: Turner's Perspective: Ideas Are Your Friend. Don't Kill Them.

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Post is included in group: The Hubba Clubba...ROAR!

26 Comments on Ideas Are Your Friend. Don't Kill Them.

FEB

2007

Reserved Parking For TLW...ROAR! :)

{SVW} Hubba...

I'm back. I will go ahead and put my comment here.

That is one of the best articles that I have read by you. I loved it :)

I want to share something with you :)

Broker Bryant and I brought range pricing into our market 12 years ago. What did our peers do when we did this? They tried to eat us alive. ROAR. They boycotted our business, refused to show our listings, tried to convince us we were operating illegally they went as far as trying to close down our business.

All this was done by our peers to kill a new idea. That is very sad. Our peers wasted so much money and time only to fail in their attempts to get rid of our way of thinking :)

Of course we just kept moving forward so that they could eat our dust instead of eating us :)

Hi JT: I won't get into my whole post on manufacturing design center in Cleveland (cause you want to stay awake LOL) but one of the things they said at the Forum last week impressed me. If they get all of the 'idea' people in one location in Cleveland for major brands of manufacturers, a natural process of brainstorming can occur. Someone works in high tech medical splints and has an issue, they are aware a colleague at a completely different company is one building away, they know this company solved a similar design issue, they set a quick mtg and voila, progress.

I have always liked AR because of the willingness to share, I guess I have not seen as much of the 'close to the vest' worries that you have. In any case, ideas shared are definitely a gain for all involved. And anyway, except in rare cases, new ideas are usually not original, no? (I used to be married to a scientist who would argue this but he is not here is he LOL)

"Ideas are just ideas. Give them room to grow and they may surprise you. Or they may just die on their own. Either way, the value is in the process." Great point. In other words, you won't know if you don't try. Thanks for the post.

TLW [SVW]... well, like a lot of things that come out of my mouth, the concepts are not unique to me. There is an amazing book by Clayton M. Christensen entitled "The Innovators Dilemma" that the concept of disruptive technology comes from. He coined the phrase. The notion of there are no bad ideas came from years of work out business values with Bill Leider.

Carole... you wrote, "I have always liked AR because of the willingness to share, I guess I have not seen as much of the 'close to the vest' worries that you have." I like AR, on the whole, for the same reasons. It was one comment on a post, not even my post, that got me started down this path. It made me remember why innovation inside any industry is so hard to achieve. So, I decided it would be a good post topic.

Jim & Maria, yes. In fact, since writing this post, and as a result of this post, I have learned something that is so critical to my development that I'm literally buzzing with ideas right now. I'm feverishly reading along a whole new line of reasoning. Why? Because I didn't know it existed. And I might never have known if this post had not been written.

JT: I just reread my comments and I am tired which is no excuse; I love the fact that you picked this topic for discussion; I was just trying to be encouraging that more people want to share on AR than don't. The people who don't are missing out, for sure. A new line of reasoning? Sounds like my college class on St. Anselm's Ontological Argument on the Existence of God. My mind tells me it was an entire course's work, it was a long time ago, so I could be fuzzy. But I loved it, it shocked me that there were different ways to think. So I hope you will share this new way to think. My brain could use constant shock :-)

I think that is one of the things I really love about AR is the sharing of ideas. I've learned so much from the people here and I've learned to look at things differently and from a different perspective. For example I'm amused when I read things about agents fearing change or the internet...to me it's like whats the big deal? But to some it is a big deal and I realize that I need to be patient and tolerant of their ideas and thoughts...even if I think they are way wrong. Interesting topic Jeff and like Carole I've seen lots of sharing of ideas and pretty well open discussions going on.

I agree with Carole and Monika, I have found AR to be, in the main, a very open and accepting community.

In general, where people can start to get defensive and resistent to different points of view (ideas) when they feel it might hurt their pocket.

An interesting book about new ideas is Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Untested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

Carole, thank you. This has been my most misunderstood post to date. On bloodhound they think this post is somehow me supporting disintermediation. I guess I can see where you might get that, but only if you stop reading at the third paragraph. :)

FEB

2007

An idea can incite a riot...depends on the idea :)

ARDELL!!! Amen, sister.

The legendary comment, true or not, when Marie Antoinette said 'let them eat cake' and started the French Revolution. Viva La France lol

Jeff: I think you hit it on the head. It's sad but this business world can be brutal sometimes.

A past story: While the both of us (my very good friend and I) are in real estate, a mutual friend mentioned that she's trying to sell her house. I told this friend to contact my girlfriend - because I knew she needed the money more than I did. She seem very successful and competent too. This mutual friend ended up never calling her. Case closed there.

When I told my girlfriend that I have plans to go into real estate full-time, and had asked her for some business advice, she turned around and told me that she cannot share that with me because I would be in competition with her. Wow! That was a big blow in my face that Sunday afternoon. I know I've been told several (by my dear husband) that I can be very naive.... I was so hurt and I cried for 3 days because of the love I have for my friend.Ahh.... Live and learn.

Somehow I dont think business must that cut-throat.

Loreena, thanks for stopping by. I've said this a million times. Ideas are worthless in and of themselves. Anyone can throw out an idea. Execution on ideas is the only thing brings value. People who are afraid to share ideas place too little value on the strategy and execution that comes from successfully vetted ideas. Business doesn't have to be that the way you just described, but it sometimes is. It's a choice they've made.

EXECUTE THEM I SAY.......EXECUTE THEM!

If not they are nothing- powerless-senseless - meaningless!

Loreena, that is a sad, painful experience.

Don't know if this is totally relevant, but to me it is. When you try to discuss philosophy or religion or politics with someone and they get all bent out of shape. As it relates to your post, I think it's all wrapped up in fear. Kris Kristofferson has a line from a song he wrote called 'Shipwrecked in the 80s' and it says 'when they prove something wrong you believed in so long you go crazy' I think the key is to not assume anything is etched in stone, short of 'do not murder anyone' LOL I'm way too philosophical today, but, why do they always pick on politicians who change their positions? Yes, some of them are flagrant about doing it to win. But others have obviously garnered some knowledge that changed their mind.

It has been said that:

Petty people talk about other people.....(Gossip)

Intelligent people talk about things......(The latest thing they bought or are going to buy)

Wise people talk about IDEAS.....(Principles for living, marketing strategy, etc.)

Jeff...I think you are wise.... =-D

FEB

2007

Alexander, thank you. I'm not sure my wife would agree with you, but... :)

Carole, great line from KK!

Ines, yes, execute them indeed!

Jeff, I had to find your blog again and respond to what you said to Laurie on the OTHER post; AR is getting very confusing. But I had to say, how the hell could this blog post be about commissions :-)

I was thinking the same thing Carole :)

TLW...ROAR!

:-)

:})

JUL

2007

{SVW Hubba}...

You know when I come back here it always feels like a blast from the past.

Funny thing is this was in February :)

TLW...ROAR!

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Jeff Turner

Santa Clarita, CA

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Real Estate Shows

Office Phone: (661) 244-5812

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Jeff Turner helps people grow their business through the effective use of emerging technologies. I am the President of Zeek Interactive and Founder of RealEstateShows.com. Father of 6. Husband of 1.

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