Inspiration…is One Helluva Drug

I’m going to repeat that. Inspiration is one helluva drug and yes, I know that “helluva” is not actually a word (Hell-of-a). As a case and point, let’s look at Pinterest. It is an online bulletin board, where you can pin and collect ideas and inspiration. As of July 2014, there were over 30 Billion pins and 70 million users. How many of those users do you think “acted” on the pins they have collected? How many craft projects, recipes, decorating projects were actually done, compared to the number of those projects that were pinned and collected?

I myself, am guilty of this. I don’t think I have made one recipe or craft project from the ones that I have pinned. I had the camping itch, and I still do, but I have done nothing with the ideas that I have collected. Well, I take that back. I did start saving my empty coffee grounds canisters, but they are currently taking up space in a closet somewhere.

The point is, it can be fun and addicting to look for inspiration for something, but it is pointless if you are never going to act upon it.

In business, we entrepreneurs sometimes get stuck on collecting ideas and improving upon those ideas, but never launch or act upon them. I have a notebook that I keep in Evernote for business ideas. In that notebook is a running note/list of ideas, called “money generators.” The CED Store was one of the ideas that I had in that note to sell and design t-shirts. That idea was in that note for almost two years, before I finally decided to act upon it.

It had morphed from being stock vector illustrations to sell until I could find a wholesale supplier and printer; to being dropshipped fine art prints; to being t-shirts and other printable items. I kept being “inspired” to morph it into something else. All the while, I never created a single illustration to put on ANYTHING. I was too caught up in idea development to act on the one I already had.

Don’t let that be you. If you have an idea, you need to act upon it. In my case, I wasn’t coming up with some new product idea that didn’t exist. So I didn’t have to worry about someone beating me to market with my idea. That may not be the case for you. Within the past two weeks, I have had two friends get beat to market with their ideas.

One is a top-notch baker and cook that had a great and tasty concept for cupcakes. The other had a utilitarian style concept for a line of jewelry. I recently saw a write-up locally for a start-up with the same cupcake concept, and my jewelry designer friend sent me photos they found of another brand doing their concept idea. Does that mean that they can no longer act? No, but they may have to work a little harder to differentiate themselves and do it better.

Be wary of the inspiration drug. Collect ideas and inspiration, but put a cap on it. Know when to say, “Enough, it’s time to act!”

This is a public service announcement from Colleen Eakins Design. (Cue “The More You Know” music and visuals)