Will my bird like this idea?
On the viability of an idea, a wise man once told me: “I take every good idea and blow holes in it.” It sounded pretty insane to me at the time. Everyone has a bit of self-consciousness, even an inferiority complex to a certain degree. Why develop that?
Negativity is never in short-supply. You don’t need to encourage anyone to criticize you – most will even do it for free. I have never met any successful people in any walk of life who didn’t meet with a great deal of adversity in some form.
But then I looked at his method from a self-preservation perspective. He would pretend to completely hate what he created, and what was left was what was worth developing. He wasn’t being his own worst enemy, he was being prepared. By refining the idea, he was ready with the right answer to any potential glitch. If chance favors the prepared, then it should be impressed as well.
So despite my creative nature, I will develop my business sense to include a dispassionate counsel. A refined idea meeting a practical application beats blind ambition meeting a bird cage floor.
Tags: Art, encouragement, Life, planning, reflection, Teaching