Echo 2010: Charles Lee Presents “Life After A Great Idea: Moving Ideas to Implementation

Posted July 30th 2010 @ 1:47 am by Jerod
Echo 2010: Charles Lee Presents “Life After A Great Idea: Moving Ideas to Implementation

Charles Lee is the CEO of Ideation, a founding member of JustOne, the leader of New Hope in L.A. and creator of the Idea Camp. Ummm...yeah.  This list is enough to prove he understands how to take an idea and make it happen.

Opening thought.

  • There is a correlation between creativity and organization.

Who are you and who/what are you leading?

  •  Do you have direction?  Do you know what your project feels like?
  • People who have meaningful things to contribute will have a tribe following them. Real change comes from a small group of people and they will get you your next group of people. Make things people want to talk about. (Seth Godin).
  • Make something a few people love, not a lot of people like.
  • It's easy to get the word out. It's hard to get people to change.

How will you implement your ideas?

  • Wisdom comes from the streets.  Are you creating things for people that don't actually exist?  Are you relying on your perception or are you talking to real people?  The Laundry Love Project washes clothes and provides other services to the working poor and homeless. They would have never known to do this if they didn't talk to a homeless man who said the thing he needed most was clean clothes.
  • Paper please. Record people’s ideas and your ideas. Develop it.  Let it breathe.
  • Work on simplicity. It takes a lot of work to be simple. For example, Gift Card Giver collects unused gift cards and give them to non-profits who need help. Simple idea.  Easy to explain, but it’s lots of work. Charity Water is another example.
  • Have a business plan. It needs to be a well thought out, sustainable plan.
  • Charles’ creativity theory. Start with one idea. Work on it. Then you get other ideas. Ideas start connecting with each other. Then there's a divine moment where all the ideas, some seeming random, come together to make THE idea.

Closing thoughts.

  • Share your idea. When you're open about a concept people want to help.
  • Expect the no's and dream anyway. Keep working at it.  Write down criticism and keep working through it.
  • Every great idea comes with a sacrifice. Work hard at it.
  • Ideas for good are the best. Are we doing good for people?  Are we creating a product only or is it something that can foster good?
  • Your thoughts are too good not to implement. God made you creative!

Here are the slides from his presentation.

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