What a Great Idea! instructs readers on how to challenge and defeat widely held notions that stifle creativity. Based on his hugely successful seminars, Chic Thompson, one of the country's leading students of the creative process, promotes aggressive and visionary thinking and unleashes readers' creative processes.
All Groan Up: Searching for Self, Faith, and A Freaking Job! is the story of the GenY/Millennial generation told through the individual story of author Paul Angone. It’s a story of struggle, hope, failure, and doubts in the twilight zone of growing up and being grown, connecting with his twentysomething post-college audience with raw honesty, humor, and hope.
Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial ''dead white men,'' are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion? In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?
How to Have Great Ideas is the essential guide for students and young professionals looking to embrace creative thinking in design, advertising and communications. It provides 53 practical strategies for unlocking innovative ideas. Strategies include improvisation techniques, changing the scenery, finding hidden links, looking to nature for inspiration, combining unusual systems, challenging set boundaries and many more. Each strategy is packed with great examples of successful contemporary and historical designs – from a designer dress made out of an old typewriter to ticket machines powered by recycled bottles in China, via the reimagining of famous brand logos and mis-use of photocopiers. Packed with practical projects to kick-start inventive thought in idea-blocked moments, this book explores creative thinking across all visual arts disciplines.
After launching a computer dating service, Husch established a vineyard in California and then marketed candy to natural food stores. In this guide for potential entrepreneurs, he and Foust, who practices business law in San Francisco, explain how to get, evaluate, protect, develop and sell new products. The bulk of the book is devoted to brainstorming techniques and exercises, including such approaches as ``revive an old-fashioned food,'' ``put an existing product to another use'' and ``create a safety device.'' They also cover market research, testing, financial feasibility, patents, copyright and trademarks. A lengthy ``resource guide'' lists publications, associations, newsletters, small business development centers, government agencies and federal patent depository libraries, along with sample forms for confidentiality and licensing agreements. (August) Publisher's Weekly.
Proven pathways for taking ideas to implementation We all have ideas—things we want to do or create—but only some of us will do what it takes to see those ideas come to pass. In Good Idea. Now What? readers will discover some of the essential values and principles that guide successful idea-makers, including the leveraging of mixed environments for creativity, working through resistance and setbacks, developing a practical plan for implementation that works, navigating collaborative opportunities, and communicating your idea to make it truly remarkable. Whether you're just a creative type, or the leader of an organization, you must figure out a creative process and develop an infrastructure for implementing your ideas. Good Idea. Now What? offers systematic advice for moving your ideas to execution. It will show you: The fundamental elements of a good idea Tangible pathways to follow after initial inspiration The importance of branding and its impact on ideas Practical advice for developing a loyal tribe of supporters who will take your idea to a whole new level It's not enough to be inspired. Learn how to follow through on your ideas and discover how great an impact you can have!
If your funny older sister were the former deputy chief of staff to President Barack Obama, her behind-the-scenes political memoir would look something like this . . . Alyssa Mastromonaco worked for Barack Obama for almost a decade, and long before his run for president. From the then-senator's early days in Congress to his years in the Oval Office, she made Hope and Change happen through blood, sweat, tears, and lots of briefing binders. But for every historic occasion -- meeting the queen at Buckingham Palace, bursting in on secret climate talks, or nailing a campaign speech in a hailstorm -- there were dozens of less-than-perfect moments when it was up to Alyssa to save the day. Like the time she learned the hard way that there aren't nearly enough bathrooms at the Vatican. Full of hilarious, never-before-told stories, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? is an intimate portrait of a president, a book about how to get stuff done, and the story of how one woman challenged, again and again, what a "White House official" is supposed to look like. Here Alyssa shares the strategies that made her successful in politics and beyond, including the importance of confidence, the value of not being a jerk, and why ultimately everything comes down to hard work (and always carrying a spare tampon). Told in a smart, original voice and topped off with a couple of really good cat stories, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? is a promising debut from a savvy political star.
If you have been nurturing a Great Idea and wondered how to Launch a Brand, how to Launch a Product or about Launching a Venture, this is the Book for you. I wrote this book because, like you, the best ideas come to you as a way to fill some unmet need in your life. "Necessity is the mother of all invention" is never truer than when you brilliantly think up an innovation, invention, or service that will make your life easier, more fun, or is just plain smart. I was standing in my kitchen after going through my usual morning routine one mundane Monday when inspiration hit me. I cannot go into great detail about my invention because I have sold it, and it now belongs to a larger company. Due to an NDA that is currently in place, I don't even know if that company is utilizing my invention. I thought to myself that if someone could create this certain thing that it would make my life a whole lot easier. I would really use this and spend good money on this if someone thought to create it. That "someone" was me! Why couldn't I create a fantastic item that would make my life better and make money doing it? This book begins right where it should -at the birth of an idea. Even the best authors get writer's block, and the best inventors lose their muse, so I thought it only appropriate to start at the very beginning. I will teach you how to stimulate your creativity, brainstorm ideas, and finally locate a sustainable and realistic product that will become your invention. Then, we move onto what it takes to bring that idea to life, crafting prototypes, locating manufacturers, enlisting the help of carpenters, tech developers, and anyone who can assist in creating the physical adaption of your idea. I wanted to not only help you think of something that you can create, but also push you to create it, and then sell it. After all, we innovators only create so that others can utilize our creations, right? This is why I dedicated a great portion of this book to also help you sell your idea. I've included the most in-depth research for social media marketing, brand development, package designing, and so much more to help you deliver the total package. During my time as an inventor, I have come across too many innovators who have sat on an idea, waiting for the right time to start. Inventors who did their best to share their products with the world, only to miss the mark in their marketing strategies and fail. Creators who lost the rights to their work because they didn't know how to secure legal protection. In this book, you will find the answers to all of your questions. It is the complete roadmap that will undoubtedly guide your product to success. This book will teach you absolutely everything you need to know about: Creating Prototypes Building a Band Around your Product Protecting your Intellectual Property and Plans Selling Your Idea for a Profit ...and so much more. I have no doubt in my mind that if you follow the advice detailed within these pages that you will see your idea through all the way to launch. What are you waiting for? Your destiny awaits as I am sure you are sitting on an idea that will be the "Next Big Thing." click "Add to Cart" now!
Explains how to turn your ideas, invention or business concept into a profitable success, and explains how to evaluate market response, production planning, pricing, sales, distribution and more.
Since 2010, Toronto's headlines have been consumed by the outrageous personal foibles and government-slashing, anti-urbanist policies of Mayor Rob Ford. But the heated debate at City Hall has obscured a bigger, decade-long narrative of Toronto's ascendance as a mature global city. Some Great Idea traces how post-amalgamation, and under three very different mayors, Toronto managed to so quickly oscillate from one extreme to another, and how the city might proceed from here. Some Great Idea includes behind-the-scenes tales from the Miller and Ford campaigns, and explores recent turning points like the city's core service review and the mayor’s con?ict-of-interest trial. Through personal history, keen reportage and revelatory analysis, it shows how the fundamental principles of diversity and democracy that have made Toronto such a vibrant, dynamic 21st-century city can produce an unlikely politician like Ford. And how those same principles have vividly and repeatedly insisted that such politicians are only part of a larger, messier and more productive urban politics. This is a story about both Toronto's past and present, how the city has relentlessly and collaboratively reinvented itself. But it's also a story about Toronto's future, and what that future might mean for all global cities. This is a story that says you can ?ght city hall. Edward Keenan serves as senior editor and lead columnist at The Grid magazine in Toronto, Ontario. An eight-time finalist at the National Magazine Awards, he has written for and edited at Eye Weekly, Spacing magazine, and The Walrus.