Here’s why you need to have more bad ideas

It’s tempting to think that all the good ideas must be taken by now and that there is no possible way to make any new positive contribution.

However, the story of every good idea, every new project, every novel starts with: There was a bad idea. And then there was a better one.

Bad ideas are not your enemy. They are essential steps to better ideas.

Focus on making something worth sharing. How small can you make it and still do something you're proud of? Could you play just one note on the clarinet that's worth listening to?

There is a community of critics and tweakers and tinkerers that are ready to criticize the logo your agency put together. What is scarce are the people willing to make the logo themselves.

Here is then a clue about what to do next: Go first. After you have done the scary bits, you can easily get help from the people who are good at smoothing out the rough places with their critiques.

We all seek out "good" or even "great". But we need to define what good is before we begin. Twelve publishers rejected Harry Potter, but then it became a worldwide phenomenon and was suddenly good enough.

Judge your work by asking what it is for and who it is for. If it achieves its mission, then it is good.

This is not your one and only chance. You won't run out of ideas.

There is no perfect idea, just the next thing you haven't discovered yet. No one is keeping you from posting a video or blogging every day, or hanging up your artwork. You have to do the steps.