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If you are a natural upbeat, optomistic idea person, this can help. As with any self help books, you have to make permanent changes to your persona to realize the benefits of the suggestions which can be difficult. If you are not an idea person, I doubt you could make the permanent personality changes to become one. This book is an easy read with short chapters and many memorable stories. It was put together well.
Brian GlassmanPh.D in Innovation Management from Purdue Innovation Management Commercialization Amazon Book Review See my other Innovation Book Reviews by clicking see my reviews at the top. Otherwise, I recommend buying this book because it is a quick read. Foster wrote an ok book on idea generation, but it is not well structured and it pushes more techniques for generating ideas, not a formalized process on generating ideas. Given that I wrote my dissertation on idea generation (Google my "name" and "idea generation" to find it) I would recommend also buying other books like the ten faces of innovation or any Thomas Kelley's other books.
In each chapter, tons of real-life examples and quotations are given to substantiate that similar views or approaches had been shared by many accomplished creative icons such as Edison and Newton. Unlike many books on the similar topics that tend to oversimplify and generalize everything, this book actually offers some very useful and practical tips to improve your creativity. Even though you may not become the next Thomas Edison or Agatha Christie, I'm sure you will at least get something useful out of it. This book is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to hone his creative skills. In an entertaining and easy-to-follow style, Jack Foster explains the common causes that prevent certain people from coming up with ideas of their own (wrong mindset, self-doubt, ineffective thinking skills, lack of knowledge on the subject, etc). and proposes some well-tested techniques to circumvent or overcome the problems.
Explore topics that you arbitrarily decided were uninteresting or difficult. Ideas are important, but action is more so. Maybe it does'nt say anything radically new, but it says it in such a straight forward way that it is inspiring. Above all, take a chance. This book was recommended to me by a freelance writer who told me that the secret to not getting hung up on each acceptance or rejection was to have a number of projects cooking at the same time. Now that Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, has shown us that success is as much a result of opportunity as natural ability, there is no reason not to embrace the notion that anyone can be more creative by simply learning how.
It condenses great wisdom into nuggets using quotes and examples. The greatest achievers didn't quit when faced with rejection (perseverance), or when they were faced with unexpected results (flexible), or then they were threatened with failure and ridicule (courage).Foster encourages everyone to venture away from the familiar. Sometimes you have to read something that makes you feel happy and optimistic. The way to do that is to have a growing collection of ideas. This book does that.
Foster was in the advertising business, but his techniques work across the board.
Foster and his associates have often had to dig deep to continuously develop high-quality ideas and he shares the tactics and devices that proved most effective.This book is not long and can be read in short order, but do not let this fool you; the content is packed with many useful tidbits on generating ideas that if put into practice will have your mind actively producing effective ideas at once. Foster details his numerous experiences in advertisement agencies as well as his management roles in marketing firms providing significant insight on how ideas are formed for profit in the business world. There is no doubt if you are just searching for a better way, are stuck in a rut, or looking for that life changing idea, then this book will be an asset. There are many well known techniques for developing new ideas; however, producing high-quality and effective ideas is not always so straightforward. Jack Foster provides effective methods for producing valuable ideas in a very enjoyable book packed with examples, applicable stories, real world applications and a good deal of humor.The advertising/marketing field is among the most idea intensive industries requiring a steady supply of inspiration for mere survival in the profession.
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