Famous Entrepreneurs

How do people think up of new ideas like that? I always try to think of new ones and they never come to me. How can I find them easier? Such as the for example the red box that people rent DVD movies out of in the store or crocs shoes?

There’s no real formula… you can’t just manufacture creativity. That’s why so many cool ideas come from small companies, or even individuals. But there are some methods for creativity. Look up "A Whack on the Side of the Head", check out

http://www.creativityist.com/

http://www.enchantedmind.com/html/creativity/techniques/techniques.html

http://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques

http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/ArticleHeadlines.asp

Some inventors/creators/writers/musicians/artists/etc. get there by creativity, but also by hard work. It might be the case that the Red Box people just one day said "vending machine… video…. duh!", or it might have been the fifteenth or twentieth attempt at starting a business.

As an individual, you are what you do. If you’re a musician (or want to be), you should be doing something musical every day if possible, even if just for a short time. If you’re an inventor (or want to be), you should work on inventions every day. Carry around a notebook or PDA or something to record your ideas, all the time. Lean to look for the "holes" in products… what could be better. Be interdisciplinary… inventors are rarely specialists, lots of inventions are created because the inventor thinks up a connection no one else thought of before.

One big problem with creative activities of any kind is getting "stuck"… writer’s block, whatever. You can actually learn ways around this, which all pretty much involve doing something different to get you approaching the problem another way. I have a deck of cards, originally designed by musician Brian Eno, called "Oblique Strategies", designed to help here.. this is intended for songwriting, but works for other things. When you’re stuck, you draw a card, and do what it says… even if that doesn’t help by itself, it may lead you a new way. See http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/

And then there’s follow-through… if you just write things down in your notebook, you won’t see anything realized… then one day, you’ll see one of your ideas on the Wal-Mart shelf, and freak out.

Use available resources. There are good books on creativity, good books on inventing, etc. And web sites.. check out http://www.entrepreneur.com, http://www.youngentrepreneur.com, http://bryandaigle.com/, I’m sure some others.

Learn to protect yourself, but that doesn’t necessarily mean jumping into filing patents your second day getting serious about it (but do read about patents, and watch out for patent scams… you can do serious patent searches for free online these days: http://www.google.com/patents

http://www.uspto.gov/

Or you could go the Crocs route.. they were certainly due to a deal with the devil… that IS the only explanation. But "Boots of Chinese Plastic" is a cool tune!