Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happen, Portfolio by Penguin, London, 2010.
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Some books you read strengthen your strengths, whilst others minimise your weaknesses. For me, this book is the latter. It’s the ying to my natural yang. Or is that yang to my ying? Anyway, I’m really good at coming up with ideas. Well, actually, coming up with ideas is not even close. It’s more like constantly being swamped by ideas. I can’t help myself I’m a diversive thinker. You say, black and I automatically say, “That gives me an idea!”
Thus my radar was on high alert for a great book on Idea Execution. When I found Belsky’s book I was drawn to it like mud is to children’s clothes. It’s a great study of creative execution. And, not as something to read – as something to do.
And that’s why this book made my list of the Top Ten Most Influential Books I’ve read in 2011. This book changed the way I work. It’s fired up my focus and activated more action.
Some things Belsky suggested I was already doing.
- I have projects. Although I needed to refine my project folders.
- I took action and I needed to ramp it up a bit. I’ve done a lot less planning and a lot more doing since. Or, more specifically, I’ve spent more time planning my actions rather than just planning where I wanted to be.
- And, the big one… I now focus on checklists and automated actions all recorded in Things for Mac. Whilst Belsky has his own way of doing things, Things works for me. And by pre-programming the steps I need to take I find I’m way more likely to complete the task. Plus, I get that nice gooey feeling of ticking it off once it’s ‘done’.
I liked this book so much I ran an Ideas Marketing / Book Rapper webinar on it. You can see the slides here.
This book is for you if you want to make your ideas happen. And, I’m pretty sure that’s all of us. Plus, we can all do it better and better and… This is the key to creating the future you want and deserve.
Number 5 in our Top Ten Most Influential Books 2011: Atul Gawande : The Checklist Manifesto
Number 7 in our Top Ten Most Influential Books 2011: Ann Handley and CC Chapman: Content Rules
