Great Idea
The Great Ideas Other People Give You
"Why try to reinvent the wheel? Instead just follow what someone else does and use it to your benefit."
My team won’t let me fly on airplanes anymore. Not because they think I’m going to die or won’t come back, but because every time I fly I come home with at least one new product idea. When I sit on a plane I tend to read magazines that are completely unrelated to my business or industry. I’ll read Discovery Magazine or Psychology Today or anything that is intriguing and thought-provoking and new ideas start flowing almost immediately.
One of my favorite ways to find new ideas is to read about methods and concepts that work in other companies and industries. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Instead just follow what someone else does and use it to your benefit. For example, one of the core architectural components of my software model came from a discussion I had with a project manager at another company. He showed me how they were using the “publish and subscribe” model to share employee data across all their departments. I later used that model to perform software and content updates with our customers.
The best part about ideas is that it doesn’t matter where they come from. Give credit where credit is due and don’t infringe on intellectual property rights, but why not feel empowered to maximize good ideas when found?
Here are a few good ideas for using Microsoft Outlook:
- To help you keep track of emails to follow up on, copy yourself as a BCC recipient and create a rule in Outlook to move those emails into a "Follow Up" folder
- Try Xobni.com to make using Outlook 100 times more powerful
- Create personal folders outside your default personal folder to store emails and reduce your inbox size – this will make Outlook run faster if your default personal folder is over 100 megabytes.
- If you use a PDA (I use the Storm) then you can use Outlook tasks and synch them with your PDA, then take notes directly into your PDA instead of on paper.
Happy Idea Hunting! I’d love to hear about your great ideas.
Thanks for reading,
Richard Walker
(Blog: www.EfficientCEO.com)
(Website: www.Quikforms.com)
About the Author
I became an entrepreneur when I started my first business at age twelve. My dream was simple: become a great leader and change the world. Today, as the President and CEO of Efficient Technology Inc, my vision is constantly being exercised and my goal is still the same. These articles are about the many facets of my passion for business: leadership, management, people, processes and technology. While I enjoy other passions like snowboarding and surfing, my focus is to share what I learn daily with everyone around me, and readers Like You. I welcome your feedback and insight!
I have a great idea for an invention. What are the steps that I need to take to make it a reality?
I came up with a great idea for an invention and have searched the internet for what I need to do next. However, all I found was a slew of websites that charge you thousands of dollars just to get a couple of documents and a drawn prototype. Is there an easier (and cheaper) way to get my idea off the ground?
A patent lawyer can help you get started on getting a patent for your idea, but I don't know if you already need a prototype or if the idea will suffice.
I do know that, to protect themselves and save money, a lot of people will write the idea down, place it in an envelope, and mail the envelope to themself, but never open it. That way the postmarked envelope will show you had the idea first if you go to someone for help and they attempt to steal your idea.
After you've attempted to patent it, or have done the postmark tactic, then you'll want to build a prototype yourself, and market it to companies who would be interested in it. Or You Want to find a company that can help you develop the prototype.
New Channel, Great Idea, Poetry & more.
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