“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” -Chinese Proverb
There I was just hanging out, minding my own business when I
saw it…
My body temperature rose at least 20 degrees, I started to sweat profusely…
My heart rate climbing with my heart pounding through my chest…
My thoughts running 1000 MPH as I stared in disbelief…
“Do men go through menopause?” I asked myself…
I watched my million dollar idea that I hadn’t even launched yet roll right on
by…
Someone else beat me to it!
I don’t know about you, but my mind is often my own worst enemy; he crazy committee upstairs constantly working overtime. Endless revolutions of the squirrel cage, round and round and round and round….how many squirrels are up there anyway?
Constantly going, going, going. I may be the quietest one in the room, but I bet my head is the loudest. I can think myself right into paralysis.
I have always been a pretty creative person with an overactive mind. You had to be growing up in a time when there wasn’t endless channels broadcasting 24/7 or thousands of video games that look so real it’s like you’re actually inside the game. Don’t get me wrong, we had Atari, Star Wars, and let’s not forget The Dukes Of Hazard! But most importantly, we had our imagination. That was our high tech way to experience anything we wanted and save us from a life of boredom.
In my experience, imagination is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. All that imagination from the pre-high tech ages helped foster the ideas that created some of the greatest inventions of the next several decades.
There are a lot of things I wish I could say “I invented that!” Maybe I didn’t invent the iPod, or iPhone, but thanks to my imagination I sure had a lot of great ideas. And you know how many times I said “hey, they stole my idea”? I don’t either but it was definitely more than 5 times. Maybe that’s not much, but it only takes one idea that sticks to make a difference. But you know what? Ideas are cheap. They’re a dime a dozen. Ideas or only as good as what you do with them.
I have millions of ideas flying around with the squirrels in my head. They come and go so fast I forget half of them (probably more) before I get a chance to write any down. The ones I do write down? They sit in a notebook collecting dust, just waiting to be the next big thing I never created. Except!…
The one I think to myself, “Now this is something I really should do”…So what happens with the crème ala crème of my squirrel factory? They usually just sit in that same notebook while I wait to get everything in order; all my ducks in a row.
They say good things come to those who wait. So does a punch in the gut when an idea you have been thinking about or actually working on hits the market and goes BIG because you were too afraid to fail and just had to wait for everything to be just right before pulling the trigger.
I don’t know about you but I don’t have any ducks (at least not when I first wrote this, more on that another time) and I never have met anyone who does.
The stars will never be perfectly aligned. The lights will never all be green at the same time. Sometimes you just have to jump in the fire and see what happens. I’m not saying to be irresponsible, quit your job, and throw your life’s savings at a new venture (been there done that); do your due diligence and plan properly, but there will never be the “perfect time”. You got to get out there and do it.
Stay tuned for part 2 when I share my “been there done that” story about how I jumped in without taking my own advice….
I’ll share my own mistakes so you don’t have to make the same ones…hopefully!
Talk Soon,
Kevin
@LEAP272
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