If People Never Did Silly Things Nothing Intelligent Would Ever Get Done.

The above quote was by Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian-born philosopher who spent much of his life in England. This quote is not to say every intelligent idea was a result of being “silly”, but to commend all those who stuck by brilliant ideas either employers, friends and even family shot down just because it sounded silly at the time.

At the beginning of some very intelligent ideas or inventions the world has experienced, there were people who thought “what a silly idea” or “what a silly thing to waste one’s time on”. It was only after it succeeded that they realized how intelligent the idea was.

It is important to recognise that most people are usually skeptical towards things that defy the norm or doing things differently than it has always been done. And so be sure that people will outrightly dismiss your new idea as silly, at a point you may even think that yourself or about someone else’s idea. But if the idea is never tested how can its silliness or otherwise be proven? There is no or very little harm in trying to succumb new ideas to a test because even if it does not succeed, you get to learn to better improve it or discover a solution to something else you weren’t even looking for. On the other hand, if it turns out intelligent and successful, you surely will be proud you stood fast and your name will be recorded for posterity.

Let us take the Wright brothers for instance, I’m almost sure there were people who said “that is a silly idea, it will never work” and I’m also sure at a point even they thought they should give up but wanting to try one last time, they are now heros. Their names are mentioned from generation to generation.
Sometimes you just have to go with your dream, follow your vision and not pay much attention to those who discourage you.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly” - Robert F. Kennedy

There is no rule governing how things should be done. If there were, there wouldn’t be diversity of opinion and progress. There will be no innovation because we will only do the things that everybody thinks is right. We would do everything the orthodox way, but wait, how did the orthodox way come about? Yes! Someone brought up that idea so why can’t we bring our own idea?

In the creative world, while generating concepts, many ideas will come to mind.some of the ideas will not make much sense to you but you will realise that the idea you didn’t have much confidence in is the one your client may choose and the one that comes out better.

To be creative means to include all the silly ideas you may have because, even if it doesn’t work for one, it may work for another. Sometimes when brainstorming, the ideas thought to be stupid may be used in writing the body copy; that is for advertising or be used as a solution for another design work. Do not be afraid to make all the mistakes. When you fail just remember it’s your First Attempt In Learning.

“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world”. - George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver did not invent peanut or sweet potato but discovered other uses for them other than consumption. He made postage stamp glue, a synthetic rubber and ink out of sweet potato and insulation, paper, wall board, wood stains, soap, shaving cream and skin lotion from peanut butter.

Go out there and turn your “silly” idea into an intelligent invention. Every mistake they say, is a new style and so learn from the mistake and teach the world your new style.

When Dr. Apostle Safo Kantanka started his inventions, it was the most unlikely news. Kantanka Odeneho II is a five seater electric car which saves energy and releases “zero” greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It uses no fuel and has no internal combustion engine, a big step forward to reduce global warming and other respiratory diseases. Kantanka incubator II which is automatic, energy efficient and made of wood. It was invented to help farmers hatching eggs in perfect conditions while paying attention to other demanding farm duties.

In the late 1970s, the rising prices for petroleum and quarrels with OPEC countries motivated the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) to find a more reliable and cost efficient method of printing. NAA searched for different ways of producing ink, rather than by using the standard petroleum-based ink. Over 2,000 different vegetable oil formulations were tested until the solution of using soybean oil came up. In 1987, soybeans were tested by The Gazette from Iowa in a practical printing run and it was successful. Typical skeptics would remark ‘if soya beans were good for printing, earlier inventors like Guttenberg would have discovered it. Let’s just stick to what we know”.

But thanks to this invention, about one quarter of commercial printers in the world now use soy ink which is more environmentally friendly, might provide more accurate colors, and makes recycling paper much easier.