People are so obsessed with getting the “right” ideas.

Instead, it is often much more effective to just have LOTS of ideas. This makes the likelihood that at least some of those ideas will be of high quality significantly more likely.

A great example of this is professional artist Drew Dernavich, known for his numerous New Yorker cartoons, who shared a picture on instagram of his “Reject Pile”:

Here is a view of two piles of his finished cartoons: Those with a “Yes” eventually were published by the magazine. Those with a “No” were submitted but rejected.

reject pile

As you can see, the pile of rejected ideas is significantly larger.

This will be the case for almost every truly creative person.

It is also the nature of creativity, not all ideas are winners.

But if you are willing to put in the work, and put your ideas out there, it is the only way that some of them will eventually get noticed.

Many thanks to Seth Godin and his book The Practice for highlighting Drew’s image.

Nick Skillicorn: I help teams and companies just like yours unleash the creativity and innovation potential that already exists in your people.

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Did you know that scientific evidence shows your creativity decreases over time
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Nick Skillicorn

Chief Editor, Founder & CEO at Improvides Innovation Consulting
Creativity & Innovation expert: I help individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next breakthrough idea which customers love. Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com and Founder / CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as one of the most influential innovation bloggers.