While many people dream of starting and building their own multi-million dollar business, most never get started.
And one of the biggest reasons for this is that they are unable to come up with an idea worth pursuing.
Having been in this position myself when I first decided to start my own business, I remember how frustrating it was, wanting to get started but not having any ideas! And what was even more frustrating was reading and hearing about all sorts of people who were coming up with great "blindingly obvious" ideas left, right and centre.
"What's wrong with me?" I used to wonder, "I could have done that! They're no smarter than me! Why didn't I have that idea?!"
In fact it took me two long and frustrating years from the time I first decided to start a business (after my first year of full time work), to coming up with an idea good enough for me to quit my job and take action on it.
Interestingly enough, many of the explanations I hear people give about why they are unable to have a good idea, are the same explanations I used to give myself when I was trying to get started.
Here's some of the most common ones I hear:
"All the good ideas are already taken."
"Everything people could possibly need or want has already been invented."
"I don't have enough ....(skills, knowledge, money)... to get an idea like that off the ground."
"It's so competitive out there that someone else has probably already started and will beat me to it."
And the classic, "If it was such a good idea someone else would have already done it!"
Do any of these sound familiar to you?!
Now no matter what your favourite excuse might be for not being able to come up with a good idea, they all amount to the same thing. You simply don't believe that you are capable of having a good idea.
And this is an absolutely critical lesson to get your head around. All excuses, including all the ones listed above, are nothing more than negative beliefs that you have picked up throughout your life, and which are now holding you back, preventing you from living the life you deserve.
The truth is that the ability to come up with great ideas is inside all of us, but like many of our hidden abilities we have never been taught how to use it!
The first step to having more ideas is to recognise the problem for what it is. It's not that you can't come up with good ideas. You can! Multi-million dollar ideas are being born as we speak by people who are no smarter, no luckier, no more connected, and no wealthier than you are! And what millions have done before you, you can learn to do too.
Every single one of the excuses listed above are false. There is no truth to any of these at all. Somebody has to be coming up with all the amazing new ideas and opportunities out there, and if you ever want to get started it's essential that you start accepting that you can too. So if you have a mental block when it comes to coming up with business ideas, take some time to think about what you're telling yourself and make a decision to let go of any limiting beliefs today. Write them down and then screw them up and throw them away. There will be enough people coming up with excuses why your ideas won't work without you helping them too!
These negative beliefs cost me two years and have cost some people their whole lives. Don't let them rob you of your future!
In the next post we'll look at some simple techniques that I and others have used to start having great ideas all the time.
Stay tuned for Ideas Pt 2: Where The best Ideas Come From And How To Have Great Ideas All The Time!
Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.