624 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
You will quickly observe that the principles upon which this lesson
is based are very closely related to those that constitute the foundation
of Lesson Six on Imagination, and also, later, many of the same general
principles as those that form the most important part of Lesson Thir-
teen on Cooperation.
SELLING YOU AND YOUR IDEASI would like to introduce some very practical suggestions as to how
the laws of Imagination, Cooperation, and Pleasing Personality can be
coordinated to create usable ideas.
Every thinker knows that "ideas" are the beginning of all success-
ful achievement. The question most often asked, however, is, "How
can I learn to create ideas that will earn money?"
In part we will answer that question in this lesson by suggesting
some novel ideas that might be developed and made very profitable,
by almost anyone, in practically any locality.
COMMENTARY
A 1998 column in the Houston Business Journal by syndicated columnist and
business consultant Scott Clark of The HTC Group offers some interesting inSight
into the entrepreneurial process. He writes that while financiers perceive
management, opportunity, and resources as the three driving forces behind
any business venture, most entrepreneurs focus on just one driving force-
opportunity. Although they define this as their product idea, an idea is just a
brainstorm that seems to have great possibilities. If an entrepreneur learns of
someone else with the same idea, they believe it was stolen from them.
Clark says that when we are exposed to a sufficient number of life events
and are able to filter them creatively, an idea may emerge. Others who have
been exposed to the same events, but under different circumstances, are still
capable of conceiving the same ideas. As a result, most of the great "ideas"
in business/science history have been simultaneously developed by several