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Conceive...

(13 minute read.)

Endless spectrum of possibilities?

'What… you serious?'

'Over-conceive/create is an entirely natural, and to be expected, element of 'creative process'…

A music album will almost certainly have many tracks which were recorded but didn't make the final record.

And with books and movies… there'll likely be copious amounts of stuff written or filmed which was subsequently discarded.

It's the way things work.

Things get paused, parked, scrapped… at an initial or advanced stage of development… perhaps to be revisited at a later date, or forever abandoned.

I've met others similarly-minded…

Seen notebooks stuffed full of scribbled ideas and jottings; hard drives too; single page websites with a 'coming soon, under construction' message. Stuff worked into rough shape.

So yes… having ideas for stuff you'll almost certainly never do is to be expected and accepted.

I still remain a little uneasy with 'try lots of things', though; my less adventurous upbringing and relatively low self-confidence suggest it's capricious and wrong.

But I have this luxury (perhaps imperative) because my primary role in commercial projects is to be the catalyst: to start things and then switch to an ongoing advisory role, rather than the front-line management of the day-to-day stuff.

Often, 'ideas' are non-original, simply(?) an improved variant of something already being done…

There's lot of good ideas being done badly (yet sometimes successfully), and for which the social engagement/site traffic stats shows there's a proven market and excellent potential for appropriate variants thereof.

Many of mine aren't original, and are often hybrids—where I've perhaps combined things from different activities and sectors.

Their value is largely that together they present different and multiple points of entry to the core of what I do—provide business-oriented information and advice and support—and shift it from a one-on-one activity into a one-for-many thing in which I don't need to be personally present.

With them, I get the concept clear, decide a name, get a domain, write an intro & overview of the concept and development… and that's where it stays until I'm ready/able to develop it or formally discontinue my interest.

Anyway…

I almost always have too many ideas—some of which will almost certainly not be developed… won't and don't get beyond 'good idea, but currently too busy or no longer fits'.

And 'do 'em all' has never been my intent. I accept there'll be 'natural wastage'… that I'll get an idea, on which I do some initial work, then for various reasons—purely personal, or market-related—change my mind and decide to not proceed further.

So, although each 'possible/perhaps' has sensible commercial potential, and they all could be done—commenced progressively over a rolling three-to-five year period, and with extensive outsourcing to reduce my workload (to an entirely manageable level in a coordinating role)—it's extremely likely they won't be.

Additionally… the origin of several has been as an alternative to a particular (and favoured) relatively large project, which several years ago I 'parked' because (due to health issues) I lacked (and might never regain) the ability to do it appropriately.

And, because of those health issues… I'd since considered either 'easing back into things' with something smaller and simpler, or perhaps permanently confining myself to several such projects.

Since then, as I favour a return to a variant of the aforementioned major project, it's increasingly the case that some ideas are becoming 'things I could have done' rather than 'things I can/could do'.

I don't need the money, and with my less-than-ideal health and relatively old age firmly in mind, I want to better use the time I have left.

So yes, I know full-well there's too many of 'em for me to do—and some I won't get to, either because I've died or changed my mind about doing them.

So it's a 'maybe, baby…' situation: they provide 'insurance', options to choose what I do and respond accordingly to market and other considerations.

Ethos… »