An idea may take 10 minutes to create. Or 42 years.
Mine took 15582 days.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a slight misfit. Not really outside, but never completely fitting in. I am a combination of academic, athlete, creative soul, book worm, rebel and a multinational expat child. To some people I was strange, to others: exotic. I was always busy exploring different topics while looking for my “thing”. The problem was, I aimed for a “thing” that nobody else had discovered. Common was never interesting, so with a strong desire for creating something new, I kept searching. Until it was there, right in front of my eyes.
People always tell that when something is right, you’ll know. I remember being in the kitchen, just about to pour myself a cup of coffee, when it hit me. The first reaction was shiver. Then goosebumps. Then I fell on the floor and started crying. And then I called my mentor.
You see, my first university education was something my immigrant parents thought was a good idea. My second, parallell with the first, was some kind of damage control. However, for the last two decades when someone asked me if I would, had I had the opportunity, change something about my education, I always answered:
I should have studied psychology.
So this January, I went back to school to make up for the wrong decisions 23 years ago. By all means, both my Masters had given me a wonderful career, and although I was still feeling misplaced, I managed to create a niche for myself that I actually love. But something was missing, and I felt it.
I run an idea generation agency. In pure English, I help people turn mediocre ideas to fantastic ones. I take their utopian visions and create profitable, scalable products and services. A sunny spring afternoon of 2021, my brain connected the dots and completed what would become my life mission. Instead of just helping people create better ideas, I would help them understand behind the scenes of idea generation. I had finally found my niche, my category, something that nobody before me had defined (at least according to Google gods).
Psychology of ideas.
First thing I did after recovering from my physical reaction was to register the domains. I thank my Master of Laws for that.
The idea generation process consists of a few steps. The first one is the information phase. In order to create a good idea, you need to fill your brain with the right content — not for that idea in particular, but in general. Perhaps in my case, I needed to start my psychology studies to fill the information gap and what was missing in the content catalogue that is my head. The following steps are: brainstorming, incubation time, the Eureka moment (if you wish) and the evaluation. My brainstorming came when I was refining my LinkedIn bio. My incubation time took place when I was busy studying for my exam, and my Eureka moment came on the 15582nd day of my life. Better late than never.
If you haven’t find your “thing” yet, keep looking. Don’t settle — and if you have, just like I had — make sure to correct your poor decisions at some point. And don’t worry: when you find your life purpose idea, you’ll know.
