Have and Share a Bad Idea

Ryan Reynolds says that one of the realizations that changed the trajectory of his career was, “You can’t be great at something unless you’re willing to be bad at it.” No where is this more true than in the idea-having business.

Most folks attend my keynotes and workshops thinking I’ll teach them how to have good ideas. So they’re shocked when the first exercise is actually all about being comfortable having, and sharing, bad ideas.

Both having and sharing bad ideas are critically important.

Sir Jony Ive recounts his interactions with Steve Jobs thus: “Steve used to say to me — and he used to say this a lot — ‘Hey Jony, here’s a dopey idea.’ And sometimes they were. Really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas...”

When you think of Steve Jobs, do you think of “truly dreadful” ideas? Of course not! You think of life-changing products and category-defining innovations. But how did he get there?

He let himself have dopey ideas, and forced himself to share them with arguably the world’s greatest living designer!

Steve’s not alone. This year, Taylor Swift said something striking in her acceptance speech for iHeart Radio’s “Innovator Award”: “I really, really want everyone to know, especially young people, that the hundreds or thousands of dumb ideas that I’ve had are what led me to my good ideas.”

Most folks avoid having bad ideas, assuming avoidance-of-bad is how they court good ideas. Don’t do that. Let them flow. Allowing yourself to have a bad idea is a necessary precondition to having a good idea. As Seth Godin eloquently put it in his 2009 blog post, entitled “Fear of bad ideas”:

“Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, ‘none.’

And there, you see, is the problem.”

Bad ideas are the price of good ideas. If you are unwilling to pay the price, don’t be surprised when you don’t bring home the goods.

Listen to Ryan Reynolds: if you want to be a great idea-haver, allow yourself to be a bad idea-haver. You’ll be joining ranks with none other than Steve Jobs, Taylor Swift, and Seth Godin.

Have lots of bad ideas. They’ll lead you to your good ones.

Related: To Get to Genius, Embrace Goofy

Join over 24,147 creators & leaders who read Paint & Pipette each week