SOS: How to Create Your Best Idea

How I find inspiration is simple... I stopped thinking like corporate America and thought more like an artist.

Thinking like an artist can help out in almost any scenario you need. For example when executing a plan like an artist you may want to think more outside the box and for those afraid to do so... I think your entry is wide open to continue to exit... but before you’re about to leave let me ask you one thing, if everything is going fine and nothing has changed do you think that things can get better? If the answer is yes then your more than welcome to kick up your legs and sip on something strong for this.

I ask myself this question many times when finding inspiration to my next creative project: How did Tom Hanks survive in Cast Away? When seeing this movie not once, not twice, and yes more than three times, I always put myself in his bare feet. How would I survive if I was all by myself on a tiny deserted island? For most people, who want to be new entrepreneurs, they ask a very similar question “how do I start a business all by myself?” More than likely, we are afraid to begin anything new, because we’re afraid of it falling apart. Why do we fear failure and why do we get flushed with the idea that we haven’t yet begun?

So back to Tom Hanks in Cast Away... Tom Hanks plays a Fed Ex executive, who travels for a work trip across the country, to then have his plane crash straight into the Pacific Ocean. Leaving him as the only surviving person... Tom Hanks' character desperately try’s to make it back home, while attempting to be saved. To then realize his expectations of being saved are short lived... but in every attempt he stays hopeful.

The question we ask ourselves constantly is how do I begin? So many times we get struck by great ideas, but lack the motivation or the right guidance on how to create it. So we instantly put these ideas on pause with the intentions to some day get back to it. The constant thought is..."someone already has this idea,” or “my idea isn’t the best,” or "no one is going to buy into it." When in fact, you may be sitting on something great... there’s a market for just about anything.

Through out the movie I came to ask myself... if I were to get stranded on an island how would I survive? If you were to ask yourself the question... am I able to survive and the answer is yes... you’ve made it one step closer, and if you’re thinking on how to sustain yourself on your idea then you’ve made it even further. The whole theory to this is to picture yourself in a situation where you're forced to put your ideas to the test.

Placing yourself in some sort of survival mentality is probably a great way to understand how a business is built from the ground up, and being able to use sources that are at your everyday disposal. Your idea can be the best idea or it can be the worst... you’ll never know until you try.

Just like survival we have to experience the art of trial and error: what works and what doesn’t. Four years later, Tom Hanks had built just about the best makeshift boat for his departure home. His plan was always going back to his wife and he never deviated from his plan, even though he knew he had a small chance of getting out alive.

Sometimes in order for us to have a plan there must be a motivation behind it. Just like his boat the plan was to have it withstand just about anything at sea, so even if your plan is to provide a better life for your family thats all you need; motivation to push you in the right direction. Getting closer to the end of the movie he sails away on his makeshift boat and looks back at the island, where he spent everyday trying to make it out alive. He never gave up, and he knew one day he was going to make it.

We get to certain points in our life where giving up is the easiest thing that we know. Before you give up in trying to survive... ask yourself this: What kind of boat will you create to help you sail to your success?