Brian Tracy explains how Steve Jobs transformed Apple through creativity and workplace culture, then teaches a brainstorming method called mindstorming: write your goal as a question, list 20 solutions, pick one, generate 20 ways to execute it, and act immediately.
Steve Jobs was known for his countless accomplishments throughout his career, but he was most commonly known for his managerial role as Apple's heroic CEO. Now, Jobs took over Apple when the company was on the very verge of bankruptcy and transformed it into one of the most successful and innovative companies in history. We all know that Jobs was an incredible businessman and entrepreneur, but it was his forward thinking and leadership that set Apple apart from its competition in recent years. It also led to the uprising of some of the world's most advanced technological products ever made. Steve Jobs was an avid believer in the importance of maintaining a creative work environment for the Apple team. Jobs led by example and created a one of a kind workplace where ingenuity, imagination and employee empowerment thrived. Steve Jobs showed the world that in our day and age, not only is creativity allied with innovation, but it's an essential part of an organization's survival and growth. Now, I encourage creativity within all levels of my organization and I agree with Steve Jobs leadership principles. A creative thinking technique that can trigger ideas and breakthroughs is what I call mindstorming. This is something that you can use to dramatically increase your creativity and even perform at the same level as a genius. Mindstorming is similar to brainstorming. It gets the creativity flowing before a big meeting or before a brainstorming session with others. And I highly recommend it. This is how it works. What you do is you get a piece of paper and you write down the problem, the challenge or goal you are trying to achieve at the top of the page in the form of a question. The more specific you are with this question, the better results you will get. For example, you could say, how can I double my income over the next 12 months? How can I lose X number of pounds within the next 90 days? How can I achieve this level of sales or profitability in my business between now and the middle of next year? Be specific about your goal and the question, and always give yourself a timeline. Once you have this question at the top of the page, you then begin to generate answers to the question. You begin to generate ideas and solutions for the problem or challenge and you write them down as fast as you can. You could do this, you could do that, you could do more of this, you could do less of that, you could start this, you could stop that now. Your first answers will come easily, but you have to keep going until you have at least 20 ideas or solutions. After the first five answers, the next five will be more difficult. Then the next 10 will be even more difficult. But you must stick at it until you have 20 answers I've given this exercise to the executives and managers and staff of large and small corporations, and very often it's idea number 20 that transforms your life and your business. When you're in the process of mindstorming, you're just working with the creative mind. Ideas can be wacky and crazy. You can have an idea and then have the opposite of the idea. You. You can have an idea that's completely crazy and an idea that's so obvious it just doesn't matter. Once you have your 20 ideas, go back over them and choose the one that feels right to you at this time. Trust your instincts with this. Your unconscious mind is a wonderful guide if you just relax and trust it. When you've chosen one idea out of your list of 20 or more, put that at the top of another page and do mindstorming to generate 20 ideas on how you could implement that idea. Once you've generated 20 ideas on how you can implement that idea, choose one and begin working on it immediately. Using this mindstorming exercise will increase your productivity and help you to achieve the results you desire faster. Using this on a regular basis exercises your brain at such a high level that it actually increases your intelligence and your iq. You actually become smarter, and if you do it first thing in the morning, you'll be brighter, quicker, and more creative all day long. Just give it a try. Once.
