Page 75 - The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas

later?”

One day I went jo g g ing to the stadium and was thinking abo ut what makes a bo o k memo r able and
interesting to read. Three valuable ideas popped up in my head: “The text should be succinct. The
bo o k sho uld have sto r ies o r at least metapho r s. Kno wing what to leave o ut is even mo r e impo r tant
than what to include in the book.” I thought, “Hey, I have to either stop jogging and go home or
remember the ideas for the next 45 minutes and write them down later.”

Memory experts have discovered that people don’t remember ideas or facts, they only remember
pictures. So, if you want to remember an idea, you have to associate it with a picture in your
imagination. I associated “succinct” with a “tennis ball,” “leaving information out” with “throwing
away trash” and “telling metaphors” with a wise man sitting in a lotus pose. I then combined 3
pictures into one: a wise man throwing away trash with his right hand and holding a tennis ball in his
left hand. Using this technique I was able not only to recall and write down these 3 ideas in 45
minutes, but also to remember them even years after the day they came to me.

Businesses become enormously successful or go bankrupt because of great ideas or lack of them.
Make it a habit to write down ideas as soon as they come into your head no matter what. Even if you
are walking in a desert or running a marathon and there is no way to write down an idea immediately,
associate it with a picture in your imagination to not let it go. Great idea creators say that writing
down all their ideas was essential for the breakthroughs in business, science or art that they made.
T his habit will incr ease yo ur pr o ductivity in cr eating hig h-quality business ideas multiple times and
have an enormous impact on your success in life.