Quirky Dot Com

One of my favorite television shows to watch is The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  It is my humor injection for the day.  I delight in his monologues, headlines, Jay Walking (he walks the area near Universal Studios and asks people questions they should know the answer to - their guesses are hilarious), and other regular "bits".  He is a great interviewer in addition to being an all around funny guy.  In one of the segments he had on recently, the creator of the WEB site company Quirky.com showcased some of the products inventors had submitted.  How it works is inventors submit their product idea to the WEB site, they post the details and visitors to the site vote on the idea.  If it gains a certain amount of attention and positive feedback the Quirky Company produces and markets the product with the inventor reaping part of the profits.  They also post ideas that still might need a little work and visitors offer their insight.  It appears to be a great way to get an idea to market when you don't have the resources or the know-how.

Seeing Quirky.com on The Tonight Show activated my creative mind.  The next day I mentioned it to a guy in my indoor cycling class who always seems to have a solution to problems or a gadget in mind to fix them.  At first he said "ideas are a dime a dozen" popping a pin into my balloon of enthusiasm that started a slow leak - but not a bust!  After class we started discussing different ideas we had for products and my enthusiasm was revived.  He did have some pretty good ideas for products - even a fitness related one - and we both contemplated submitting ideas to Quirky.com. We will see where this goes.

We all have them - idea killers. People who trash our idea or shake their head or give us less than enthusiastic responses when we reveal our latest crazy dream.  Don't let them bring you down. There are a variety of ways to handle them - don't share your ideas with them, share but ignore any negative response, or ask them what they like about the idea, what they might change or what part of the idea is a concern and politely ask for any suggestions. You just might end up with a better idea and someone one your side.