#000086 Perfect Idea

Let’s talk about the idea. First of all I think God gives ideas. I think God gives us unique characteristics inside of us, things that we are interested in. That’s not just happenstance. I think God put in me an interest to be outdoors. Be in a machine shop. Hey, this is my machine shop. I have about seventy employees. We make parts for metal and industry. I didn’t know that much about a machine shop when I bought it nine years ago but I like to be with guys. I like to be outdoors. I’m not one that’s like a hairstylist, running my hands through people’s hair and massaging their head. That’s for somebody else. Nothing wrong with that at all. It’s just not me. So I believe God would put in us and he has already put in us likes and preferences and interests and we should go with that. We should follow that flow. We should be consistent and we should look for ideas within that flow of things. Maybe not exactly something you have experience on but something you feel comfortable with. Something you like. Now, I like to think that our ideas are something that is building towards a plan and so in this investigation stage, I’m already thinking about, okay, what’s the numbers involved? How would this work if I were to make this into a plan. And so I become a question-asking machine. I mean I ask questions, ask questions, ask questions, ask questions while I’m thinking about my idea. I’m reading books about this. I’m subscribing to magazines regarding this. So, let me give an example. Way back in the early 80’s I had a son that was very good in the sport called soccer. You may call it football. It’s World Cup football. And I was fortune that he was very good at this sport and that meant that we had to travel and did travel to other cities, sometimes five hours away, sometimes three hours away, ’cause our team needed to make practice with really good teams from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Really good teams from St. Louis. Really good teams from Kansas City. So I’m there with my son. We have parents there. There’s plenty of supervision. My son didn’t want me to hang around him all day. He wanted to have fun. They only had one game a day so I had plenty of time to think about my idea of opening a mini-storage. Now, some people around the world may not realize what a mini-storage is, so let me describe it. Believe it or not, in the United States of America, Americans have a lot of stuff. A lot of extra stuff. And in this stuff they don’t have enough room to fit it at home so they rent a place called a mini-storage, a little unit so that they can put their stuff in and keep it out of their house. So in that regard I was interested in mini-storage. So when I was on one of these trips I would take my camera with me. I would take that camera and I would take pictures from the curb. I would go in and talk to the manager of the mini-storage. I would ask questions, ask questions, ask questions, and in formulating this idea of should I own a mini-storage I was working this through but I was already gathering numbers. I was gathering the numbers that said what does a typical storage unit cost? What percentage of these storage units are full? What would a contract look like? Could you give me a copy of the contract? Can I read the contract? Would you give me a tour inside your mini-storage? And so I’m formulating this idea long before I ever am even writing my plan. I’m writing my plan, and so as I’m doing this, this is giving me information. Information that’s valuable. Information I am formulating this. Now the reality is I don’t share most of my ideas. Not because I’m afraid somebody’s gonna steal them. That’s really not it. I don’t even share a lot of my ideas with my wife ’cause I have so many ideas. I have to narrow those ideas down into something that’s feasible, something that fits me and something that the numbers will work. Later on I’ll talk about a feasibility study but I’m still at the idea stage. You see, an idea– I’ve had people say man I’ve got a million dollar idea. Well, the key is can you make the million dollars? That’s the key. So starting with something that fits you, something that you’re gathering information, you’re asking questions, you’re hearing God’s voice in it. You see, I believe God is a giver of witty inventions and ideas. His Word shares about it. He gives you thoughts that are consistent with His thoughts and I just believe that God’s gonna show you how to put something together. How to make something work. How to make an idea into a plan but I just believe it’s gonna be something that fits uniquely to you or at least inside your skill sets and interests and I just believe that you’re gonna run with that as you watch the rest of these series. So I hope you’ve enjoyed this. I hope you will take action in this. So lemme give you action steps. Lemme give you some plans. I’m gonna challenge you to start gathering your thoughts. For me it happens to happen normally early in the morning. Or it could happen while I’m driving down the road. I always keep with me– I didn’t prepare for this but I keep me a little pad. I have a little pad here and I actually have a pen. I put my pen away so it didn’t show up here. I have a pad and a pen. I’m always almost with a pad and a pen with me. Because when these ideas come, I know from experience, unless I just jot it down, about five hours later I’m thinking oh my goodness, what was that? I think that was a great idea! I just can’t remember it. So I just think that that’s something that’s gonna be important to you to be ready for those ideas to come your way.