One Stupid Simple Creativity Hack Led Me to My Best Idea Ever

You never know where a seemingly trivial idea will take you.

My eyes scanned my Daily Reads before halting on a title that triggered a whirlwind of nostalgia.

“Write Down 10 Ideas per Day and It Can Rewire Your Brain”

To you, that sounds like the same ole recycled productivity/creativity content.

When my eyes crossed that title, it wrestled my attention to the ground and thrust my mind back to 2017.

Four years ago, I worked in corporate banking. I didn’t like my job. I didn’t like my career trajectory. I knew I’d eventually be miserable if I stayed long enough. I was right.

I wanted to do something unconventional, off the beaten path. Something that wasn’t so predetermined like climbing the corporate ladder. But I had only ever been exposed to traditional careers. I knew practically nothing about entrepreneurship.

Still, I wanted to start a business — I just didn’t know what that business would be.

A random google search about entrepreneurship led me to James Altucher, a zany businessman with an up-and-down-and-up career. I’m not here to applaud and endorse every article, podcast, course, and book he writes. I still remember him coming off as a little slippery. That said, he not only introduced me to freelance writing — which I now do full-time — but also taught me to think like an entrepreneur.

How? It started with writing down 10 ideas a day.

That little technique changed my life.

Everything starts with an idea

This simple exercise led me to one of my best ideas.

But it didn’t occur in my first 10 ideas.

Or the next 10.

Or the 100 after that.

To shed light on how radically my creativity changed, here are my first 10 “ideas” verbatim:

1. Pitch an episode to Black Mirror or just write a story with an equally bizarre premise.
2. Start a publishing company.
3. Book idea: impoverished villages hold a tournament to receive government relief and subsidies. Fight to the death? Cyclical society, as new villages arise, less government aid, thus the tournament occurs. (I was on a Hunger Games binge at the time.)
4. Launch a shark fin bucket hat.
5. Relaunch the NCAA Football video game series.
6. Start a bookie business.
7. Master blackjack and run Vegas.
8. Start a website that summarizes inspirational books. (Little did I know, sites like Blinkist already existed.)
9. Start a sports talk show.
10. Create a guide to idea creation. (Because, clearly, I had already mastered this process.)

I was hardly the next Thomas Edison. Whatever piqued my interest throughout the day would find its way on my idea list.

But simply trying to come up with novel concepts, themes, or approaches can help grease the wheels of your idea machine. With practice, you rewire your brain to view the world from a new perspective — where even the smallest of problems or inconveniences could demand innovation.

However, before you can partake in this challenge, you have to accept a universal truth: most ideas suck.

I used this technique to come up with random drivel for months, but it eventually led me to my best one: “Write a book from the perspective of a freelance writer learning how to write full-time.”

That’s the exact word-for-word idea I wrote down in November 2019. More than a year and a half later, I’m in the process of having that book published.

Everything starts with an idea, yet the average person handicaps themself because they approach ideas from a fundamentally wrong perspective.

Your ideas should be forced and (mostly) terrible

Before we dive into James’s technique, we have to explore two mental roadblocks that prevent people from accessing their best ideas:

Roadblock #1: We treat ideas as spontaneous and serendipitous — as if they’re totally by accident.

While ideas can fall into these categories, they don’t have to. Creativity is more akin to a muscle than an unpredictable volcano. You have to exercise your muscles to make them stronger and produce more results. If you choose to passively wait for creative ideas, they might never come.

Roadblock #2: We immediately discard ideas as worthless if they aren’t perfect.

We have stratospheric expectations for our creativity, which is an unreasonable standard to hold ourselves to. When you view ideas through this lens, bad ideas will deter you from tiptoeing too far outside the box. In turn, you limit your creativity.

Again, most ideas suck. It’s a numbers game. To spawn gems, you have to sift through a lot of meh thoughts first. This requires a shift in mindset.

How to transform yourself into an idea machine

The goal of James’s daily exercise is to shed your perfectionistic tendencies and become an idea machine. Writing 10 ideas a day is a simple concept, but a lot harder than you’d imagine — especially if you don’t already think like an entrepreneur.

We want every idea to be revolutionary. That’s unrealistic and self-inhibiting. Shaking perfectionism is like correcting a bad habit; it takes time and concentrated effort.

So, no matter what the idea is, whether it’s starting a dragon-themed bakery or writing a book about books, write it down. As you turn the gears in your mind, you’ll train your brain to think differently.

If you struggle with 10 ideas each day, James suggests that you strive for 20. While that seems counterintuitive, it’s not — committing to an even higher number each day forces you to shed your meticulous, nitpicky ways.

You also have to set yourself up for success by encouraging ideas. Strive to learn and broaden your perspective by reading books, watching videos, talking to experts, talking to friends, talking to strangers, and whatever other means you can think of.

After following this routine, my mind found a rhythm. I looked at daily life situations through a new lens. At a party, someone asked what game we should play. Idea: “Develop a drinking game and sell it.” I’d have dreams and turn them into novel plots: “World where thoughts don’t exist and everyone speaks constantly.”

As you repeat this exercise, it’s easier to find deeper meaning in mundane life activities and view them as sources of ideas.

It gets easier to think like an entrepreneur.

You’re in charge

Against James’s recommendation, I did not come up with 10 ideas every day. Some days I did, some days I didn’t. So, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t reach your daily quota. It’s still a worthwhile exercise when you can spare the mental capacity.

You can also work your way up to concentrating on specific types of ideas. I’ve since retired my general ideas list. Instead, I contribute to a new list that only contains Medium article ideas. Now, I have a deep, ever-growing vault of potential topics to write about.

A lot of them aren’t worth a second glance.

But it only takes one good idea to radically change your life.