EXTRACTING GOLD FROM MY RECENT READING

Here are some of my quick salient learning points from the book, 'The Riddle: Where Ideas Come From & How to Have Better Ones', by Andrew Razeghi:

- truly understand the 3 key words: innovation, failure & success;

- don't innovate, solve problems; [I would certainly add finding problems to solve!]

- when you think you are not creative, just ask: when was the last time I solved a problem? how did I solve it?;

- become a problem solver [& problem finder], not an innovator;

- what is most important to understand about failure is the attribution to failure: why did it fail?

- when things go wrong, stop & ask: why?

- when things go right, ask: where did the idea come from? what was I doing just prior to having the big idea?

- based on the answers, ask: what can I do in the future to recreate the conditons for creativity to flourish?

- be mindful of what happens almost immediately after success;

- when you succeed in innovations, it doesn't mean your ideas are the best ideas;

- it only means your ideas were the best at the moment; [certainly resonates very well with de bono's First Law!]

- sustainable success, like democracy, is not a destination; it's an aspiration;

- think of success as a process;

- don't forget to look in the rear-view mirror now & then. It has been done before;

- the author's parting quote:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. It has been here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."

- and so it is with all things new! [certainly drives home the point of 'Ideas Build On Ideas!']