10 TRICKS to Catch AMAZING Ideas FAST

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Catch Ideas. Over to you, David Lynch.

An idea comes and you see it and you hear it and you know it. How does it come? It comes like on a TV in your mind. You know, there's a line I've always loved of Leonard Cohen. He said, if I knew where the good songs came from, I would go there more often. Absolutely. People, we want— we don't do anything without an idea. So they're beautiful gifts. And I always say, you— desiring an idea is like a bait on a hook. Yeah, you can pull them in. And if you catch an idea that you love, that's a beautiful, beautiful day. And you write that idea down so you won't forget it. And that idea that you caught might just be a fragment of the whole, whatever it is you're working on. But now you have even more bait. Thinking about that small fragment, that little fish, will bring in more. And they'll come in and they'll hook on. And more and more come in, and pretty soon you might have a script, or a chair, or a painting, or an idea for a painting. But they come as— in small more often than not, small fragments. I like to think of it as in the other room, the puzzle is all together, but they keep flipping in just one piece at a time. In the other room— Over there. In a sense, David, there's always another room somewhere. That's a beautiful thing to think about. Let's think about it a bit. No, you think about it.

The best ideas come when you can see a pattern that other people can't see. When you can combine multiple things into one and that combination has never been done before. If I look at what I've done here with Toronto Dance Salsa, you know, we're a salsa dancing school. A lot of people have done dance instruction before, but they haven't done it in the way that I want to do it. What we're starting to really introduce hardcore is storytelling and life advice into the classes so that you're coming not just to learn a new set of moves, but to be a more confident, more fulfilled human being. And so I need to teach the instructors not just about how to teach a right turn, how to teach a Coca-Cola, or how to teach a cross-body lead, any of those moves, but also how to be a guide. How to give people confidence, how to make people push beyond their comfort zone, that when people come to a class here, they're in for a life-changing experience. My goal for all of the instructors is I want each instructor to be among the all-time favorite instructors, teachers, of every student that comes in. If you think about your life, you've had a favorite instructor, a favorite teacher growing up. Maybe it was your grade 8 science teacher, and you forgot all the other instructors and teachers in your life. I want that person— if you come to take a class at Toronto Dance Salsa, I want my instructor to be your favorite teacher of all time. And that comes when you make an impact on the person's life beyond just teaching them a move. So why is this important? How did I come up with this great idea? It's not really my idea. People have already done this. If you look at Bob Ross, and he teaches people how to paint. People love Bob Ross not just because of his painting instruction, but because of the life advice and wisdom that he gave in his classes. Russell Simmons does it in his fitness classes. Tony Robbins does it at his events. You know, priests and pastors do it at their churches every weekend around the world. This model already exists. I'm just bringing it to the salsa world, to the dance instruction world. Because nobody has done it before. And so while it may look like some stroke of genius, now when people are walking out of class and they've had a profound life experience on top of learning some dance moves, people can give me the credit all they want, but it's really just I'm pulling from the things that I'm interested in. I'm learning from these people that I've put on my YouTube channel and saying, "How do we apply this to our business?" It's not that I'm super genius. You could do it for yourself as well. Look at what has made people successful. Watch the top 10 videos. Learn from people who've had massive success in their fields and then think, what can I learn from them? What can I learn from the most successful Mercedes-Benz dealership in the world? And how do I apply that to my golf business? It's those connections that other people haven't thought about that will make you massively successful. If you are just starting up in a business, I recommend modeling success. If you don't know how to do something, Modeling success is one of your fastest ways to do it. Learn from people who've come before you, model what worked for them and apply it to your business. And it works great for people within your industry as a start. If you're in software, go learn from Bill Gates. You know, if you're in whatever industry, you learn from the person in your industry who's made it. But don't let that limit you. Also learn from people who you look up to and respect. If you love Jay-Z and you're a videographer or you're an author, what can you learn from Jay-Z to make you a better writer? What can you learn from Jay-Z to make you a better dancer? What can you learn from Jay-Z to make you a better plumber, electrician? Because you can. And when you figure out that connection, you'll be the only one in your industry doing it, and you're gonna stand up and rise above the rest. So when you get these ideas, when you surround yourself with more than just the typical way of doing something in the business, then you're gonna catch these little pieces of ideas and and test them in your company. And not all of them are going to work. In fact, most of them probably won't work. But you'll find a few that make you come alive, that you really, really love and are passionate about, and that work with the audience and people really connect with. And when you go all in on those things, that's what's really going to explode your business. That's what's really going to allow you to do the thing that only you can do, that no other plumber, electrician, or dancer can model. That's what's really going to be the thing that sets you apart and allows you to build something that's both personally fulfilling and has a huge impact that lets you go out and make a lot of money with your company as well. The best ideas come from when you can combine things in a pattern that other people don't see. So start looking from other industries and applying it to your business today. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what have you learned from a different business that you've applied to your company where it seemed totally offbeat, totally different, totally outside industry norms, and it worked? Super curious to find out. Please share it down in the comments below and we'll join in the discussion. I also wanted to give a quick shout out to Sandra. Sandra, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, for entering the book contest, for making those amazingly delicious Your One Word cookies. They were awesome, and I really appreciate your support. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. And I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going. Hey, Believe Nation, thank you so much for watching. If you want to learn more about this subject, get a little bit deeper on it, I'm going to share some extra bonus clips that I hope you'll enjoy.

Number 1 for me, life lesson, is that ideas matter. Now people say, of course ideas matter. What kind of stupid life lesson is it that ideas matter? The truth of the matter is, this is both under- and over-appreciated. Most people think every idea is a good idea, as long as they had it. The truth of the matter is, not every idea is a good idea. Not every idea matters. And not every idea should be pursued. And if you're in a field like I am, or was, of innovation, not every idea is a good idea, even if it strikes you that way on first blush. In fact, most people are lucky to have one idea that really matters in their whole life. That's not a criticism. But earth-shattering, life-changing ideas are very few and far between. Research insights, investment insights, innovations. A good idea needs to be cherished and nurtured.

[Speaker:EVAN CARMICHAEL] Success is not something you to pursue. Success is a matter of becoming a person of value. We should not be pursuing money, we should pursue purpose, we should pursue vision for ourselves and for our countries, for our communities. We should be not pursuing things, we need to pursue ideas. That's right. I always say that there are 3 types of people in the world. There's poor people, there's rich people, and there's wealthy people. Poor people talk about money all the time. Rich people talk about things. Wealthy people, they talk about ideas. Rich people, poor people, and wealthy people think differently. For example, poor people, they pursue money. Rich people pursue things. Wealthy people pursue ideas. And so constantly there's a different way of thinking. I hope that the Third World countries and the young people of our nations will become ideas people. People. You know, ideas control the world, not money. And ideas attract money. So, I think if we minimize this desire to get money and elevate the creativity of new ideas, we'll find that financial results will naturally flow to it. Bill Gates didn't pursue money, he pursued an idea. Steven Jobs, the late Steven Jobs, who invented the Apple computer, and the iPhone. He never went after money. He developed an idea. And I think if you think of all the wealthy people in the world, it was ideas that made them wealthy, not money. So I think we need to switch it, reverse it. Don't pursue money and then try to get an idea. Get an idea and money will pursue the idea, and you become a byproduct as far as wealth.

What does the word entrepreneur mean to you?

When somebody can take an idea and make it real. And so that, that an entrepreneur could be a business person, could be an artist, could be a musician, anybody who can have an idea and turn it into reality.

And how did you do that?

I dedicated myself to it. When I was 22 years old, I promised myself that I would work my tail off until the age of 30 at a minimum to succeed as an entrepreneur. And that was extremely important because I had a lot of failure along the way.

Right.

The first company you started failed.

Yeah, actually. And then there was a company that I didn't even start that I failed at. So I really had two failures before I succeeded with GoPro.

How did those failures drive you today?

Well, at the time they scared me. Failure isn't easy. It wasn't like I thought, oh cool, I failed. And success has taught me that one of the most important things an entrepreneur can have is perseverance. The dedication, a willingness to fail, pick yourself up again, and give it another shot. Because if you don't have that, if you don't have that grit, you're gonna get run over.