By Debo Adekanmi Adegbaye
Idea! What did you know it to be or what do you think it is in your own context?
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary has this to say about idea: “a plan, thought or suggestion, especially about what to do in a particular situation”.
Though there are other definitions given from different perspectives but the one stated is the most relevant one in the context of the idea we are concerned about in this piece. To me, idea is as important as one’s destiny and proportional to the level of individual’s success or achievements in life. No life is set aright without a bit of idea to build the future on and of course no business will ever start without an idea at least! Or can you tell me a businessman, an inventor or investor who had nothing to do with idea initially and got through in the business or invention? Definitely you can’t see any. Even a student who has no idea of any course will definitely fail the course. What if he ‘crams’, you may ask?, Yes he may but middlingly and if excellently, it is short lived. Yet in all, I will still want you to believe that the means, “cramming” itself is an idea, but typical of the lazy ones, the desperate.
In the light of the foregoing, I will want to christen idea with my own crafted definition which is put together from its acronym – I-D-E-A. So I define idea as the Innovative Development of Exceptional Aptitude. But I don’t know how often you’ve heard people scornfully describing idea as inferior to money, they say that an idea is worthless and irrelevant without money, or haven’t you heard something like such? In my own opinion and even in principle which shall duly be proved, money is far of lesser value to the concept of idea I am talking about here. Just walk up to any millionaire and ask him how he made it in life, he would tell you that he got rich through one business or the other. Bravely go further in your quest by asking how he got to start the business or how he got the business concept in the first place. If he would be sincere enough, he might tell his story in this manner that one day, it just crossed his mind that such product his company produces or the type of service his company renders was not in existence then at that particular place and people were really in need of such product or service, then he THOUHGT he could start such product or service, and that was how he started, by and by he is now a millionaire through the then THOUGHT! Now, that very “thought” is the idea I am campaigning here.
Let me be sincere with you, the justCAREERS Newspaper magazine and matterMATTERS247 media outfit which become a reality today are products of some years thoughts (ideas). Remember the dictionary definition I first gave about idea as a plan, thought or suggestion especially about what to do in a particular situation. Idea creates business by proffering solution to a particular problem in a particular situation through a logically reasonable thought and a well-designed plan suitable for systematic execution of the business project.
What will you call a business without idea? Of course nothing. No idea, no business! See, put the whole money on earth together, it won’t bring out anything lucrative but rather it will be nothing but useless materials piled up as dung because the economists even will tell you that the value of money lies in its purchasing power. And whether directly or indirectly, idea dictates what money purchases and how and why it purchases it. So you can now get the fact that it is an ignorant assertion that an idea is worthless and irrelevant without money. The proponents of such claim would have been right if they had put it this way that an idea is worthless and irrelevant without money if the initiator of such idea stops thinking on further advanced idea which can aid the former. My logical argument is that even if you don’t have money and you have idea, think further on another idea formula which can fetch you money to advance on your original idea that will definitely make it lucratively productive. I think I am not talking ambiguously in abstract in the premise of my proof? Definitely it shouldn’t be. Okay, consider this also, if you have money and you don’t have idea, there is definitely nothing you can do in furthering your fortune productively, though I stand to be challenged. Don’t forget I have established the fact about what you can do when you don’t have money but having good idea. While there is alternative means for money creation (which must be through a definite idea at least) there is no alternative means for creating idea, but only by idea and NOT money! This is a simpler sense of reason, idea can create money but NEVER can money create idea. quod erat demonstrandum(QED).
So you will agree with me at this juncture, if such need be for rating and ranking money and idea, you will henceforth say it loud and clear that money is far of lesser value to idea! I mean uncommon, valuable and productive idea which is passionately believed in by the owner.
Now, can I convince you at this point that with that single idea you have been dreaming of its reality for years, you can rule your world? Even if you don’t have what it takes or the money required to execute such a mega project (I guess) presently, only you need to think further on another ‘aiding idea’ as I’ve expatiated which will definitely fetch you money. The aiding idea may be in form of you engaging yourself in any casual work which can get you good savings in a shorter time, be it ‘labourer’ work, factory round-clock casual job, okada riding, sales representative on commission, hawking of your personal mini goods, car wash or any other menial job no matter how worse but godly, in as much as it can meet your targeted savings within the time bound set to execute your original idea.
Convincingly, I can infer that if you could have ever held in your hands a copy of justCAREERS Newspaper–magazine or privileged to view this piece on matterMATTERS247 media outfit online at this moment, definitely there is nothing dreamed or conceived with your “idea creative womb” that cannot be realised or birthed by the ultimate help of the custodian of all good ideas himself – the God Almighty.
Mind you, people will call you names during this time of making like somebody without bearing, shameless entity, lazy figure, gold digger, unreasonable wanderer, Pleasure-centric, unserious element, non-achiever/nonentity, failure, debtor, aged-idiot, visionless, Prideless Christian, work-phobic and so on because they don’t understand you have a joker idea which eventually will get them bowed to you like the biblical Joseph’s elder brothers did!
You must understand that not everybody can start on a silver platter, but you can hoist yourself up to start even on a gold platter! Instead of waiting for people to deceive you more till your dreamed idea is out of vogue or coincidentally carried out by somebody else, you’d better employ the principle of aiding idea I just mentioned. It is nothing else but idea that will change your present story if and only if you can discipline yourself to study your environment and secretly peep into what its problems are all about, then think and think on suitable solution(s) to the problems, the result of your thought is the idea we are talking about.
I think you can, by now, reason with my definition of idea as the innovative development of exceptional aptitude. In the immediate previous paragraph, I talked about you studying your environmental problems and thinking logically on suitable solutions to the problems, the result which gives you the idea needed for a great business in that environment. It is the exceptional aptitude which you have innovatively developed that gives you the idea. Not everybody can do that. If everybody can do that, it means everybody will be rich, I mean it!
