Quite some time ago on Aridni I wrote about a dilemma I had in getting a project done.  I didn’t have the technical skill to actually write the software myself and I did not have the time to learn it adequately enough.

Now that I am actively trying to restrict the number of projects I’m working on, I wanted to get these ideas out of my head.  They are not quite as powerful as they were when the ideas were born, but they might be of interest to someone out there.  If you decide you want to take on one of the projects, great!  Go for it.  I’ll even help you with getting hosting.

The three projects are right after the break.  They are ‘Hivemind Snapshot Project‘, ‘Articles of Organization and Operating Agreement Generator‘, and ‘Auto-task generation… thing‘

Hopefully you will find at least one of them useful!

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A constant problem for us millionaire wannabes is that we’ve got a lot of ideas that never seem to develop into something concrete. Guy Kawasaki, the guy we all turn to for the occasional kick in the butt, has done it again in his book, The Art of the Start.

He’s got five tips that he calls GIST: Great Ideas for Starting Things

1. Make meaning (Inspired by John Doerr). The absolute best reason to start something is to create meaning, to make a product or service that makes the world a better place.

2. Make mantra. Mission statements are so long. They’re boring, and they’re irrelevant. No one can ever remember them. Instead, make your meaning a mantra. Answer the ‘why’ of your organization. Your entire team can get on the right course if they actually know why you’re all there.

3. Get going. Start creating and delivering your product or service instead of the silly details like pitching and planning. You don’t make money there.

4. Define your business model. No matter what kind of organization you’re starting, you have to figure out a way to make money. The greatest are short-lived without a sustainable business model.

5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks). The last step you need is to compile three lists:

(a) major milestones you need to meet;
(b) assumptions that are built into your business model; and
(c) tasks you need to accomplish to create an organization.

Ever try to tell someone about an idea and it the process it seems to grow at an alarming rate? Ideas have a tendency to quickly spawn new ideas at a rapid pace, but only when your mind starts to think about them and the possibilities.

Just having ideas and encouraging them to grow will help you gain an entire arsenal of fresh ideas. You might not get a chance to try them all, but you will certainly be prepared if one of them doesn’t work out as well as you planned.

Using your mind for developing concepts and ideas takes a bit of practice. The amount of ideas that you can generate are up to you, as is the quality of them. You won’t always get all winners, but you will certainly be able to get a good number of them. Honestly you really only need one of them to take off, so don’t stress out to much if you can’t quickly come up with a great idea right off the bat.

Two ways to help your ideas expand quickly is to tell somebody about it or write it down. These both force you to think about the idea. More neurons will fire off and more connections will be made. So the next time you are not sure exactly what you want to do with your idea, tell somebody about it. Draw it out and use your brain. That is what you have it for after all.

**There is a similar post from earlier this month that has just been recovered from a database error right after I finished this post. How to have ten thousand ideas in five minutes**

Have you ever noticed that every time you get an idea, it is more than just one idea. You get a vision for an entire system. Of course all of the exact mechanics are not quite in place, but you can visualize them. And while you are thinking about one part of your idea, it seems to multiply and your options expand at an alarming rate. This is because ideas breed ideas.

I am sure that you have heard the phrase ‘success breeds success’ and that is fairly straightforward. If you have done something successful and proven yourself it will be easier to do another project that is successful as you will have much more recourses at your disposal.

Ideas can work in a somewhat similar way. If you have one idea, it can lead to many more if you would let it. And a great way to come up with more ideas is to work on one that already exists.

If you are listing ideas, have you ever noticed that you come up with around half of them on the spot while you are writing down the first half? Or simply by explaining a current idea to someone, not only will you come up with more as you clarify and expand, but the other person will generally have input.

If the person you are talking with is willing, your conversation will greatly expand your project idea or refine it until your idea has grown into a plethora of ideas that is still growing.

So write down your ideas. Let them evolve. Let them multiply. And of course, let them be developed before it is too late.