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Most of us have heard about Aerosmith, one of the most iconic bands in music history. 

The band has quite a few rituals – some pre-show, some post-show, and others revolving around the music they create. Among these, there is a particularly interesting one.

At the band's weekly meeting, every member presents a new idea regardless of how silly or embarrassing they think it is. Oftentimes, the ideas put forward are complete rubbish and end up getting rejected immediately.

Although it's rare, every so often an idea comes along that makes everyone go 'You know what? This could work!' Some of their most famous songs, such as ‘Love in an Elevator' and ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady,’ were inspired by these meetings.

They call this weekly meeting ‘Dare to Suck‘.

Ed Sheeran, who is considered by many to be one of the best songwriters today, has a very simple process for writing songs. He simply writes down everything that comes into his head. The beginning may not be too great, but soon enough it starts to get good - almost as if someone has flipped a switch. Neil Gaiman (a #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 books) talks about a very similar process in his Masterclass.

Many of the world's greatest creative minds produce their best work by following a similar pattern: they let all their ideas flow out without judging or critiquing them. At first, the ideas are fuzzy, weak, and bad according to their standards. Once these "impurities" have been flushed, periods of intense creativity and genius often follow.

We often produce subpar work because we don't let our minds clear before starting. This occurs in many scenarios; an important presentation, creating marketing content, or the desire to learn something new. If we embrace our bad ideas and allow the fog to lift, we can uncover our brilliance.

Oftentimes, we refrain from starting new projects because we doubt the quality of our ideas; our forms of Imposter Syndrome. Instead of developing them further by sharing them with others, or writing them down to explore our thoughts more fully, we keep them locked up as an excuse for procrastination.

Next time you have an idea for something, start by jotting down every thought you have about it, without filtering or censoring yourself. Remember that even the most brilliant diamonds are found buried in the rough. So remove all distractions and turn off your inner critic; just let the ideas flow freely onto the page.

Keep this up regularly and see if you eventually reach the point where fresh ideas start bubbling out. I'm certain you'll get there quicker than you expect! You'll come up with thoughts that were hidden in some dark recess of your mind that you didn't know existed. In other words, another side of yourself will be revealed because we all have those imaginative ideas within us somewhere, buried below everything else we take in from the world around us each second of every day.

Yes lives in a sea of No. Failure is just a lesson on the path to success. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Just Dare to suck.

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EOS Implementer®

K7 Leadership
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