Where do ideas come from?

Ideas are worth a penny. But good ideas do not come easily – at least, to the most of us. Most of us tend to think of inventors as another species—geniuses—who have sudden flashes of insight, while of us cannot think of a single instance when a light bulb went off in our head, leading to some killer new idea.

According to historians [at National Geographic] who specialize in the development of inventions and the thought processes of inventors, innovation is often a slow and iterative process.  Generating ideas is a skill; the good news is it can be learnt! Here some ways you can generate ideas easily.

•Your interests

There are things that pique our interest or draws our attention, every time. We are curious about these subjects and largely fascinated by how they work. For me, it was majorly how business works. At The Wumbb, we are fascinated by the entire process of taking an idea and turning it into a big business; we take time out of my day to study biographies and stories about how companies and entrepreneurs began as this feeds our curiosity and increases my marvel. So what is that thing you cannot get enough of? It could be as simple as how machines operate or as complex as how the internet works. When you look deeply into these interests, an idea might just come out.  An example of a company borne out of this is Microsoft.

•Your problems

Yeah, we all have something that has proven difficult to do. These problems could be as small as the difficulty you experience when packing for a trip, your inability to decide on which movie to watch, what book to read next, or as complex as finding the right partner or preparing a business plan.

The catch here is: most of these problems are common to a lot of people and not just you. All you need is to find a problem that is common enough (ask friends, family even strangers if they experiencing the same challenge), find a solution to it and sell your solution. But note: the solution must be replicable and easily accessible. An exploration of these problems often creates a niche product/service. An example is Quora

•Your past experiences

Many times we visit a different country or state or meet a new friend and experience things we were not privy to before or things that were not available to us.

You come back and cannot seem to get over the experience; you find yourself referring to it a lot in your conversations with people and wishing to go back to get more of it. This is a potential idea generation source; the idea for a lot of business franchises came about like this and you can easily turn your experience into a successful business. Begin to look closely into what made the experience special, how it is run, what is needed for it to run and start exploring the idea of replicating it where you are now.

This works both ways, if you are currently away from home; in a new culture or place, seek out new places and experiences; you never know something may catch your fancy. An example is Uber in Lagos.

•Your Hobbies and Passions

There are many things we enjoy doing and can do with little effort or training such as designing, sewing, reading, writing, shopping, using social media, generating creative ideas or even watching and arguing about football matches. Your hobby could very well solve someone else’s problem. For example, if your hobby is reading, you can read books and write reviews that can help book readers easily make decisions about what book to read.  If you turn that into a blog, gain traffic and monetize your blog and in time you will be getting paid to do what you love: reading. Start taking a critical look at your hobbies; you would be surprised what you find.

•Your Training or Expertise

The norm is to go to school, learn something and then work for someone. We can tweak this a little: go to school, develop expertise and start a business! Many of us go to school to learn something and do not even use it. But why not create a business around what you are trained in? For example, you studied chemistry and you are working as a customer service agent, you can start making soaps or other useful chemicals during the weekends and delivering to stores; you read economics and you are working as a marketer; you can be an analyst for small businesses, helping them prepare their financial documents or you can even create a blog where you breakdown and simplify financial issues or analyse economies of big companies or countries. Do not waste your training and the time and money you spent acquiring that qualification; you are already good at something. Upgrade you skills to global standards and you can make money from it.

•Your grudges/frustrations/irritations

I don’t know about you but some things don’t stop to annoy me. For example, how long the queue is at the polling booth, the mistakes guys keep making when asking a girl out, the discomfort of public transport, the long queues at banks; the list is endless. Getting angry and staying angry about things is not wise nor is it healthy, you can put your energy to better use and alleviate your hurt by seeking for a permanent solution to those irritations; and what better place to get ideas other than problems.

Go. Find your hidden idea and show it to the world!

Need business support? Do you have a few ideas and can’t pick one or you have an idea but don’t know how and where to start?  The Wumbb is a Startup and SME Consulting firm; we transform ideas into successful businesses. Send us a mail at info@thewumbb.com. For more inspiring stories and resources on entrepreneurship, join the largest entrepreneurship community in Nigeria on www.mentor.mara.com or download the Mara Mentor app on Android and iOS stores. For inquiries, email: support@mentor.mara.com