Overcoming the avalanche of ideas – 2

Have you ever been presented with one of those business cards that read like an advertisement sheet for numerous business ideas, where the identity of the owner is buried while competing for space with the several preoccupations claimed by the owner? Catering and Events Management, Project Management, Building Contractor, General Merchandise, Fashion Designing etc. How thrilled were you about doing business with the person? If you are like me, you probably conveniently misplaced the card shortly after receiving it.

Excellence is a product of consistency. Until you are very well known for something you do very well, you are not likely to do anything else very well. You may know about many things and even build capacity for doing many but you must seek to be known for something to which you can bring your personal distinction.

How do you overcome the idea avalanche? You need to cut through the clutter and know how to keep the main thing the main thing. While you should remain grateful for the capacity to dream up ideas, you must know that you can never do all things at the same time!

First, write down all the ideas that come to you as they come. You may not have all the details but write them down. Having gone through the identification and itemization process, arrange them in order of priorities and immediate possibilities.  Ask yourself some pertinent questions and do not proceed until you have found answers to those questions. If you believe that God has a role to play in your affairs – and He should, because trying to succeed without Him breeds the highest level of frustration – identify which of those ideas honour Him and enhance your capacity to honour Him. Write those ones separately or mark them with a code. If any of the ideas does not fit into that category, you probably don’t want to have anything to do with it, no matter how laudable. Next, ask yourself, “which of the ideas gives me the greatest inspiration and whets my appetite for success and achievement with a sense fulfilment?” Identify and list them in order of importance to you. For the moment, limit yourself to the three or four most important things on your list.

From the three, proceed to find out which of them is or are of immediate relevance or benefit to a greater number of people. Remember that success is not just about what you intend or know how to do. It is about how many people agree with you enough to want to see you do it and reward you for it!

There is no product or idea that serves everybody. At least not at the onset. Even if you have the elusive, if not illusory, ‘everybody’ market in view, start by identifying your immediate target audience or market. That will serve as the tinder that you need to ignite the larger market. Then find out which platforms exist to reach your market, especially the tinder population. These days, technology has made it easy to get in people’s faces and get their attention. Social media have become powerful tools of communicating the message and value of your idea. And the good thing about it is that it is largely free, easily accessible and connects you to the whole world at once!

For the first few months after I ventured into garri production, it appeared to be a failed project. This was because we had invested quality time, resources and process to producing a high quality packaged product that would up the ante compared to other types in the local market. That should not have been a problem did you say? Right. Except for the fact that it meant higher production costs than what the local garri producer would incur. The implication was a higher retail price that meant that we could not possibly compete in the local market. But I knew my target market and decided to produce for that market even if it didn’t exist in the immediate locality of my operation. When we used the social media to connect with my target market, we sold more products in one month than we did in the preceding ten months!

Those who fail to plan have already planned to fail. Therefore you need to also ask yourself which of those ideas you can immediately plan for. A plan is a roadmap that helps you to navigate the maze of challenges you will face in the execution of any idea. Like a compass, your plan determines your ‘North’ at any given time.

One good thing a plan does for you is to help you identify what resources are currently available to you to begin the journey of fulfilling your dream. This facilitates the process of effective resource application that prevents the diffusion of your resources which comes as a natural consequence of pursuing too many things at a time without a given, sustained and sustainable focus. When people tell me that the number one problem they have in getting any idea going is finance, they are shocked when I tell them that money comes perhaps a distant fifth or sixth on a list of perhaps eight things required to kick-start an enterprise.

By the time you have gone through these, it should be very clear to you which of the several ideas you can immediately begin to implement. It does not mean that the others are not good but by the time you have painstakingly gone through the process outlined above, you would have found out that not all ideas carry equal importance. Not all ideas can inspire you and of course not all ideas that come to your head fit your present execution capacity. Besides, not all good ideas leave you with a good conscience!

You can eat a whole elephant if you are patient enough to take one bite at a time!

God laid a good precedent in the first book of the Bible. He had the idea of a universe comprising the heavens and the earth in mind, along with the various components of planet earth, including man. But He did not create everything in one fell swoop! He spaced Himself over a six-day period in which He instituted and completed a process and task for each day. He did not proceed to the next task until He had ensured that the task of the day was already established and functioning literally on autopilot!

Once you have successfully completed a task in a sustainable way, you would have developed confidence required to engage another task and execute it. That is how a chain of successes is recorded!

Now that you know, what are you waiting for? Success awaits you!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!