The Mathematics Behind a Big Idea

Most of us believe that all we need to do is to find that one big idea.

Are you waiting to be inspired? Waiting for that lightning bolt of creative energy that fills you with so much momentum, everything else will fall in place.

There is a reason that people compare it to being struck by lightning. Not even getting struck by lightning happens by chance.

You have to walk out on top of a hill in a storm and hold up a piece of metal.

photo by Owen Zammit (creative commons)

There is a formula for being struck by lightning. And there is a formula for finding your inspiration.

(Getting Started + A Bad Idea) x Time x Work = The Big Idea

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Notice that time and work multiply the chance of finding the inspiration. Both are critical. But without a bad idea or without getting start, the entire outcome multiplies to zero. 

My friend, Matt Appling, a writer, pastor, and a teacher, puts it this way:

“My biggest obstacle in getting started on a new project, is that I often feel the need to have the ‘big idea.’  You have to have a vision for something before you can know where you’re going, right?  Well, I often don’t have a vision, a five year plan, or even a five minute plan.”  

Matt’s secret? He starts. 

With a small idea at first. Maybe even a really bad idea that will never amount to anything. But he begins.

Then the magic takes place. Once he starts, that first worthless idea helps him come up with another bad one. This new idea is still small. But it is a step. The longer he works the more ideas develop. 

The ideas then begin to develop into something worth pursuing. Eventually inspiration comes.

Incredible ideas are a product of adding together a start full of bad ideas, which when given time and added to work, can develop into incredibly good ideas.

But the key ingredient, the one part that has to happen first is the start.

Nothing happens until you begin.