It was an experimental wine that Thierry had been working on...
He thought it had potential, so he decided to share it with Guy.
He poured two glasses. They sipped it.
After they'd both appreciated it for a few minutes, Thierry declared in heavily accented English...
"Now zat iz what you call a phet best-ard!"
And so the wine -- and Thierry's winery -- was named.
The point: Don't be afraid of silly ideas...
That's the advice Paul Arden gives in his book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be.
And it's advice that I agree with big time.
Fat Bastard wine is just one example of a silly idea that turned out to be very successful. I mean, who in their right mind would call a wine Fat Bastard?
Yet, it worked brilliantly...
In just six years, it became an international success, selling hundreds of thousands of cases. In fact, the brand was described by BusinessWeek as a "marketing phenomenon."
I actually remember first seeing a bottle of Fat Bastard in a Tesco in Grimsby a couple of years ago. And I'm not surprised it's stuck in my memory...
Imagine looking along your typical supermarket wine shelf. There's Chateau This and Chateaux That -- and then, right in the middle, there's a bottle of Fat Bastard!
It's an absurd name -- almost juvenile. But attention-getting... and unforgettable.
Arden quotes John Cleese as saying:
"High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought."
That's what happened with the wine... Thierry and Guy weren't thinking critically when they decided to name the wine. They just went with it.
I bet there was a lot of critical thought afterward, as various "suits" undoubtedly told them it was a silly idea. But they stayed with it, and ended up with a hit on their hands.
Using Silly Ideas to Solve Your Problems
Arden also talks about how "thinking silly" can help you overcome a mental block...
This resonated with me, because it's something I often do if I get stuck. You're faced with a problem at work and you need to come up with a solution, but your brain just isn't firing.
It happens to us all, right?
You sit there trying to figure it out, but you end up going round in circles.
The problem remains.
One of the reasons your brain might not be firing properly is because you're being too critical of yourself... You're so concerned with coming up with the right solution, first time, that you're blocking your brain.
As Cleese said, "creativity is responding to situations without critical thought." So, you need to dump that critical thought and start thinking freely, start thinking "silly."
Arden's approach, here, is two-fold...
First, he recommends doing the opposite of what the solution requires...
And second, he recommends looking out the window and using whatever catches your eye -- be it a man in the street, a television aerial, whatever -- as a possible solution to your problem.
Both ideas sound strange, but it's exactly this kind of illogic that shakes up your brain and gets it thinking about your problem -- and its solution -- in a different way.
So whenever you're struggling to come up with a solution to a problem you're facing...
By Glenn Fisher
Follow Paul Arden's advice and start "thinking silly"... Your silly idea might just turn out to be the best one you ever have.
[Ed. Note: After studying business, economics, politics, and creative writing -- and working for many years in local government -- Glenn Fisher joined Shortcut Publications as the editor of their flagship publications, Shortcut Bulletin and Shortcut Confidential. Glenn has developed a loyal following by helping and inspiring his readers to achieve personal and financial freedom. To receive Glenn's free, daily e-letter, go here.
And for more help coming up with and developing your own "silly" business ideas, come to ETR's biggest event of the year, our Info-Marketing Bootcamp. Glenn Fisher and the team from Shortcut Publications come every year. And they're joined by hundreds of industry experts, Early to Rise readers, and small business owners eager to learn the next steps they should take to get their online ventures booming. Find out all about Bootcamp here.]
The "Be Here NOW" Success Technique
Recently, I observed a training session for the employees of one of my clients. When a couple of the attendees started goofing around, Lisa, the woman running the session, raised her voice and said: "People -- this was paid for by your employer. You are on company time, and I intend to maximize the use of that short time we have together. So please work with me and be here now!"
"Be here now." That phrase -- referring to the awareness of not only being in the moment but staying in the moment over an extended period of time, free of distractions -- struck me as being very much in tune with the overall goal achieving process.
Here's how to apply it to your goals:
Rule #1. Concentrate on defining your objective.
What do you want to accomplish? What matters to you? Why do you want to achieve that particular goal?
Rule #2. Concentrate on one part of your goal at a time.
Break down your ultimate goal into smaller chunks. Keeping on eye on the big picture is great. However, you have to focus on the individual steps that will get you there.
Rule #3. Concentrate on controlling your situation.
When focusing on those individual steps, control your natural tendencies (we all have them) to drift away from the task at hand and/or stop trying if it becomes too challenging or takes too long.
Rule #4. Concentrate on completion.
To achieve any goal, you have to make a commitment to reach the finish line. Strengthen your resolve and keep yourself motivated by visualizing the end result -- how excited you'll be and how great you'll feel when you reap the rewards of your hard work.
By Bob Cox
[Ed. Note: Bob Cox is a success coach who can help you achieve goals in every area of your life: professional, social, personal, and beyond. Check out his program here.]
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