I’ve always been fascinated with thinking about where good ideas come from. It is obvious that execution is just as important as the actual idea, but where does that small kernel which explodes into a game-changer come from?

Many thinkers have surmised that winning ideas don’t belong to a specific person, instead they belong to a specific place and time. To me this makes perfect sense when you realize that good ideas never stop coming. Great new writers are made each day, great cutting-edge entrepreneurs are also made each day.  These people become great when they figure out the process of mining for great ideas, but then they apply these ideas to the current time we’re in now. Despite the billions of humans who have lived on this earth, individuals still keep having new ideas.  Why?  Timing. More specifically, adapting to the current time.

For Steven Pressfield the birthplace of ideas is the Muse, that invisible spirit which bestows momentary flashes of brilliance upon us.  But the Muse only rewards hard work. Lazies need not apply.

The essential thing for us to increase our chances of getting great new ideas is to constantly be putting in effort thinking of new things and exposing ourselves to new ways of thinking. Even better than this is actually testing these ideas in the real world.  This is the hard part, and the reason many would-be millionaires never materialize.

There are hundreds of these great ideas for new products, books, songs, all out there in the ether. We just have to be able to grab them from thin air.

I really want to be one of the lucky ones who can grab a few of these ideas.  But then again what does luck have to do with it? I just want the work ethic. The Muse will eventually reward me.