Potentiality Digest: Don’t Give Up on Your Ideas

By Sodeeq Abdulakeem Sulyman

Scientists have proven that every human being conceives ideas every second. They, however, noted that most ideas end up in the waste bins because human beings don’t ponder on their ideas. The reasons why human beings easily let go of our ideas, are because most people see ideas as tractions that have no substance, or a mere product of intuition that lacks the strength to come into fruition; thus, ideas are simply perceived as intellectual abstractions.

I used the position of scientists to set the ball rolling for this write-up because scientific postulations and their validity are established on facts. Therefore, it is a fact that all human beings conceive ideas, but what makes our ideas manifest into reality depends on how we have built ourselves to trust our intuition. This is to say that those who have not learned how to trust their intuition will never ponder on the power of the ideas their intuition birthed.

There is no one who is bereft of ideas, but most of us lose the potency of our ideas because we don’t believe in it, we don’t take actions on it to make it work or by allowing people to discourage us from executing the ideas we have conceived. What those who allow their ideas to end up in the waste bins don’t know is that it takes courage to rise against every odd obstructing you from living your true self. “It takes courage to grow up,” says E. E. Cummings, “and become who you really are.”

You may be asking the question of what could be the obstacles to executing your ideas. The obstacles are many; it may be you, it may be people you respect or trust but who are discouraging you from working on your ideas because they are blind of the potential of your ideas or because they envy how your ideas may change your life. But if you don’t trust your intuition and believe it, you will never see the air of ideas as the only one worth blowing.

History has been kind to many people just because they refused to give up in pursuing their ideas. Even in the face of denials from those who they respect and trust, they don’t cease from chasing the rewards of their ideas. Do you want to stop working on the ideas you have conceived, just because some people are discouraging you or because they are telling you your idea is a path to futility? Don’t listen to them. Be strengthened by the words that said “Those who see your light will shine with you.”

Take a clue from the story of Albert Einstein: His teacher told him he is too dull to make something meaningful out of life, he lacked the potential to occupy a place in the midst of the greatest scientists who have ever grace the planet Earth, but because Einstein didn’t give up, his name is written in gold! Imagine how darkness would have overtaken the world without his monumental invention. Einstein saw the light in his heart and he used it to lighten the planet Earth.

How about Larry Page and Serge Brin – the Co-founders of Google Inc? In 1999 after they submitted proposals to George Bell, the CEO of Excite to sell their search page to him due to the uncertainties threatening its survival. Serge Brin and Larry Page want to be frustrated from working on their ideas when George Bell declined from honouring their initial agreement of $1,000, by offering them $750. Truly as humans, they were disappointed; but they rescinded the offer and started infusing more energy and strategies to their ideas. Today, Google Inc exemplifies what it means to believe and work on your ideas.

My personal story also, is one that inspires when it comes to setting your ideas on course. Let me briefly narrate how I ended up writing my recently launched book – “The Path to Greatness.” In 2019, during my National Youth Service, I conceived the idea of weaving imagination and creativity to birth reality by using the English alphabets to tell stories of prominent Nigerians. I want to do this for free in the NYSC monthly newsletter.

When I contacted the editor of the newsletter, who doubled as the NYSC PRO in the State I was deployed, he only read my messages without giving any response. I was stunned! I revisit the manuscript I drafted for the content I intended to be sharing for free and I discovered both the artistic, economic and creative potential of it. Immediately, I humbly declared to myself that “I will not give up on the idea; I must see its end.”

Nick Wignal affirmed that “If you’re afraid to ask for what you want — or say no to what you don’t want — people are going to take advantage of you.” Because I refused to be taken advantage of, because I refused to be denied by somebody else’s blindness to what my Creator has kindled in my heart, I had turned my idea to more than two hundred pages book adding values to people and helping them discovering the turning points.It is not a sin for a thought to come to your mind, but it turns to a sin when you hurt yourself by not pondering on it or when it is used to affect other people’s lives in negative ways.

The best time you have to start working on the idea you believe it can launch you to the limelight is now; do something feasible for people to see what you are made of. There is a difference between your words and works. Words determine how you feel, but work determines who you will be. Don’t just believe in your words because words take you far in an imaginative world, while work lift you high to the real world. Eleanor Roosevelt submitted that “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes…and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”