“Obvious” ideas are not so… “obvious”…

Once a disciple of Guerrilla Marketing comes up with an idea that is easy to implement and that looks like is going to generate some “easy” money, the recurring comment we hear is: “Oh, come on, if it was that easy, we would have already done it” or “There is no way something that trivial has not being done before” or “Ok, be serious: you would not really think that this is going to work? That we are going to make that much money with so low risk?”…

Evidently, we are trained to discount rewards that are too easy to reap: this comes from the common sense that every mom instills in her sons and daughters. But this also a dangerous path if we are not aware of its potentially negative influence on our willingness to explore new ideas.

I find fascinating the point of view of Jay Abraham (an excellent reading is his book "Getting everything you can out of all you have got") about "trivial" ideas.

Many objects that are common today are relatively recent: I am not just talking about cell phones and wireless internet (they could not exist before because the underlying technology was not available). I am talking about many other “trivial” objects that nobody thought about before…

For example: it is unthinkable to purchase a baggage without wheels today – wheels are such a natural part of the baggage. Right? Wrong! Ask your parents: when they traveled, 30 years ago, baggage did not have wheels… then one day a “genius” thought “Ehi, what about putting wheels under the very heavy bag so I might avoid getting a backache?” …

Another similar example is the snowboard: today easily 50% of the 15-30 years old skiers are actually snow boarders. Well, just 25 years ago nobody would imagine that: boards were reserved for sea (surf) or the street (skate board). Then another “genius” thought “Hmm, wouldn’t it be cool to try to put a surf on snow?” and voila, an entire “trivial” industry was born…

Morale of the story: don’t discount an idea because it looks too “trivial” – you might be on something big that you never thought about before… Great ideas don’t have to be necessarily expensive or ultra high-tech: there is still plenty to do in the domain of low-tech, everyday life.

Mau in Austin