We all get ideas. Everyday. Most of the time we do nothing about these ideas and infact we ignore them. At the back of our mind, we tend to think that “this is nothing great, it’s just an ok idea. Nothing original about it.” But, you are more original than you think ! Research says, all of us tend to underestimate the originality of our ideas.
We all spend time generating ideas in response to a specific challenge that we need to resolve. Be it at work or at home or in the society at large. A problem needs to be resolved, and we find solutions. It may be an everyday mundane problem or a complex or complicated problem.
When Bindu and I set up ShikshaDaan Foundation, we wanted the foundation to be very different. Unique and Original. We were clear right from the beginning, that we wanted near 100% of the donor’s money to reach the beneficiaries. We had read several reports from global institutions that administrative overheads of NGOs were very high. Consequently just 80% of the donations reached the end beneficiary. We also read about NGOs where just 20% of the donations reached the end beneficiary. We came up with a model that could deliver to our original idea and fine-tuned our model basis suggestions from colleagues, friends and well-wishers.
When we started presenting to corporates, our unique model was an instant hit. We were able to credibly prove that the model worked. So far we have supported the education of about 9500+ students, raising Rs.10 Crores (approx 1.31 Million USD) in the process. Till date, we have managed to deliver 98% of the donor’s money to the beneficiaries. What looked like a not-so-original idea or approach in 2012, has now proved to be original, delivering huge impact. Fortunately, we backed ourselves and did not underestimate our own idea. Read more about ShikshaDaan here – https://www.shikshadaan.com.
The message is simple – pursue your ideas, they are more original than what you think.
Recently I read an article published in the Insead Knowledge Magazine that shares the findings of the research into this subject. Apparently, we all underestimate the originality of our ideas and suffer from overconfidence when we evaluate the solutions.
Read the Insead Published article here: https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/you-may-be-more-original-than-you-think-13981
Read an older blog carrying Osho’s story on “originality” – Osho Story #8 – Mirror
Very nice … fear of failure or fear of non acceptance makes us suppress our ideas or thoughts and when someone else executes then we feel terrible about it thinking if we had a little more courage to stand for ourselves …