Secret 3 of Thomas Edison's Top 10 Million Dollar Invention Strategies:

Set Yourself An Idea Quota and Become Immensely Productive!

Thomas Edison's Top Ten Invention Strategies: 1--2--3--4--5--6--7--8--9--10

3. Set Yourself An Idea Quota and Become Immensely Productive!

A remarkable trait of geniuses is their capacity for immense productivity. Thomas Edison is legendary for his indefatigable output. By the time of his death in 1931, he held 1,093 patents, which is still the record for an individual. He ensured productivity by giving himself and his co-workers idea quotas.

Edison's own personal idea quota involved coming up with one minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every six months. Isn't that astonishing!

Now most of us would be quite chuffed to create one minor invention in a lifetime. But we set our targets far too low!

Genius grows by the demands placed upon it. Get "off your duff" and set yourself some new targets. If you are a writer, aim for a chapter a day, or an info-packed report every 3 days. If you are an artist, look at how you can increase your output. If you are an entrepreneur, don't give your mind an excuse to slack off: set yourself targets for ideas in marketing, sales, new products.

Be specific. Force yourself to come up with 50 ideas if you are working alone. If you are part of a team, expand the quota.

When you give yourself deadlines, your brain gets serious. Journalists don't get time to flim-flam around contemplating their navels - they have deadlines and word counts to meet - and heaven help them if they miss a deadline. Their copy has to be honed and sharp - just what the editor ordered.

You'll be amazed how your thinking skills improve under the pressure of speed and a specific target to be met. Pressure makes diamonds.

Creative types are often the worst in the world for procrastination, and for languishing in their "art". Forget it! If you want to be remembered as one of the greats, get your ass in gear because you've got a lot of catching up to do. If you want to wear the label "Genius" you need to be prodigious!

Now prodigious means that out of quantity will come quality. When you are generating ideas, some will be bad. But think of them as stepping-stones to the good ones. If you didn't get the bad ideas, you might not cross over to the "million dollar" ideas. Edison knew this and was also very cognisant of the fact that bad ideas can combine to form good ones.

As a rough guide, when generating ideas to meet a quota, your best ideas tend to come in the later stages. The first ideas that you generate are the most obvious and common. These are the things your brain is most familiar with in relation to the central idea or theme that you are dealing with. Equivalent to sound bite easy-to-deal-with knowledge.

It's like someone saying, "What shall we do tonight?" And your brain says, "Go to the movies, watch TV or go for a pizza." You know, the easy default options. To be creative you have to push beyond the obvious and the habitual. Be prepared to sweat the best ideas out in order to meet your quota. You should be really, really stretching by the end.

Well, what are you waiting for?

... Get busy!

Next: Why A True Genius Sweats! Mulish Persistence and Dogged Determination Win Through to the Gold!

References:

http://www.writeabooknow.com - Steve Manning's "How to Write a Book in 14 days or less!" website.

• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 1: Mastermind Alliance
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 2: Power Napping
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 3: Idea Quota
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 4: Determination and Hard Work
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 5: Failure Feedback
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 6: Scribbling
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 7: Serendipty and Synchronicity Rewards
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 8: Playfulness is Fun!
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 9: Demonstrate Idea Value
• Thomas Edison's Invention Secret 10: Hunt with the Pack