The Genesis of Genius

Innovation is all the rage these days. Everyone want's to be a "disruptor" or "alter the paradigm." It can happen; Uber and Chili Cheese Frito taco shells come to mind.

There's no one way to get there of course. But here's a thought exercise that can expand your mind to new possibilities.

Take a headline from an innovation newsstory, like the following:
 

Then take a line from the story that sounds like an origin of the idea. In this case, I choose: "During her senior year of college, Rose was dared to eat a fried scorpion while studying abroad in China."

Rose must have taken several dramatic and innovative steps between eating the scorpion and saving the world. Ask youself, what are some possible actions she took that led to such a life-changing result?

Some possibilities include:

​1. Rallies her fellow bio students and persuades the college to fund preliminary concepts.

2. Works Lay’s and other large snack companies to obtain popular flavor profiles.

3. Automates proposal submission process with help from Google volunteers.

4. Researches salmon farms and applies parallel concepts to “bug farms.”

5. Reaches out to governments of poverty-stricken companies to promote health and positive outcomes.
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Nom nom nom.

Rose probably had her own ideas, but these are the ones that come to my mind. Then you can apply the same principle to something closer to you, like creating new programming, or offering a different product. Decide where you want to end up and back fill it with transitionary ideas.

​As Lisa Daily, host of nationally-syndicated morning TV show, Daytime, "“You’ll never get a new ending if you keep starting with the same tired beginning.”