Bringing a Concept to Reality

Bringing a Concept to Reality.

Do you ever have an idea or concept that you think would greatly benefit your work or personal life? I would be willing to bet that most everybody has had at least one in the past day/ week/ month/ year. That is what keeps us going! The difference between having an idea and making it a reality is; TAKING ACTION. It sounds easy at face value but taking action can be one of the hardest things to overcome. There is always resistance and obstacles to overcome. The trick to bringing a concept to reality is to identify where the resistance is coming from and if the obstacles are passable. For example, when I was a kid I wanted to become a professional baseball player. I soon realized that my obstacle to overcome was my talent. 

It was an impassable obstacle; my talent was never going to be at a high enough level to play in the big leagues. That’s ok, I realized that my idea was not suited to become a reality, and I was sure to have other ideas in the future. But, these are the easy ones to identify. How about the ones that don’t come so easy? How do you even identify what you would need to overcome to bring a concept to reality? Where do you start? As with most things, it always sounds easier than it really is.

I always start by listing what my idea or concept is. As an example I am going to tell you how MIT Powder Coatings decided to begin offering 2 pound samples size quantities available for purchase.

Idea: Allow current and new customers the availability to receive sample sizes of our products, while keeping the cost of this service out of every box of powder sold, and only customers that require this service pay for it.

Then I will begin to identify the need for this idea or what brought it to light.

• 1. MIT Powder Coatings customers are asking us for this service.
• 2. How can we expose more potential customers to the MIT brand?
• 3. Our current customer is one who purchases powder in a minimum quantity of 55 lbs. or greater. How can we expand our market to include customers with smaller order requirements?     

Next I always list the obstacles that I will need to overcome in order for this idea to come to a reality.

• 1. How can we keep the cost of samples out of the price of each box of powder?
• 2. Will this effectively answer the needs previously listed?
• 3. Do our current customers and potential customers need or want this service?
• 4. Is this a direction that our company wants to move in?
• 5. Does this new idea fit within the GRAND idea of what  MIT Powder Coatings is and how they want to operate?
• 6. Does this idea help grow business and Brand recognition?
• 7. Are we currently setup to offer this service?
• 8. Do we have the right infrastructure to offer this service?

Once I have identified the need and listed the obstacles, it’s time for the real work to begin. This is the favorite part about my job. I love to problem solve and figure out how to complete a task! I will usually begin to see if I can find others who overcame the same obstacles and evaluate their process. Once I know that somebody else succeeded, I know that I can achieve the same success, if not better. I try to look at a problem from all angles and decide the best course of action. If need be I will ask for help from others with similar experience or outsiders with completely different perspectives. Any and all help is welcomed as I do not know everything.

Now that I have completely gone through my list of obstacles and identified ways to overcome them, it is time to…….. TAKE ACTION!!!!! At this point there is nothing stopping you. You already did the hard work of identifying if the idea can become a reality. So stop wasting time and bring that concept to a reality by TAKING ACTION!!!!!!!!