The Two Cents Of Madness On Your Productivity Theories

An advertising heavyweight is said to have once remarked – “for those in our field, when we are working on a project, it is IDEA or I DIE.” The meaning behind this statement is crystal clear. A plant germinates from a seed, and likewise, an advertising campaign comes out of an idea.

Similarly, creative people supposedly always say, “there is a method to our madness” – doesn’t have a method in madness sounds inappropriate. After all, madness is a state of disorderliness, a phase where there is no order. This is more of an oxymoron – isn’t it?

A state of chaotic orderliness.

Those in the line of innovation, too, come up with such phrases. There are phases of ‘chaotic orderliness’ is what they say. If there is chaos, logically speaking, there can be no form of order in things or processes. What do all of these sentences actually mean? Simply put, what they are trying to say is that even when it comes to doing some challenging, something totally out of tune with what others have done, one needs DISCIPLINE, to do so.

Your mind has to, but has to, work in a definitive mode for you to think of out of the box things. There has to be logic behind creativity. There has to be drama behind being chilled out.

The CEOs of big corporations lead a very tuned in, disciplined life most times. They get up before the crack of dawn, do their ablutions, get what gives them the mojo to work, and off they go like a well-oiled machine. When developing a new technique or a new product, the innovation team tries to operate as one unit, and try for their thoughts to work in a sequential manner to come up with something revolutionary.

Revolutionary, by its very definition, means something ‘different,’ does it not? But to have something like this come out of your brains, your mind has to work in a given pattern. Only then will it produce an end result which is what will blow others’ out!

A creative spark needs fine tuning.

Take painting on a canvas. If one has no talent for it, has not honed the creative spark required for it, all that you do is smear something onto the screen in front and dab in colours with brushes. But for it to come as a breathtaking picture, one which connects with its viewer, the artist needs focus and a hand which works in a certain rhythm to etch out a masterpiece.

The scene may be one of the flowers or the heavens coming in to meet the earth at the horizon, but the creator of this has to be an astute person who knows in his mind what he or she is doing. They cannot go all crazy while painting except in certain exceptional cases where they produce something which literally shows that there was a rampant mind which created this!

The same is true for writing stories or articles. Though you are creating something out of literally nothing, the author has to know what he or she is up to. There has to be a thought which will translate itself from the mind, soul or heart of the writer into words and paragraphs on paper. Only then will the writer be able to convey his or her message to the world.

Be clear, be focused and use positive energy.

To make something which is a cut above the rest, you need to know what you are doing. You should know where you are coming from. And, even where you are headed. Rarely does one come up with a product or a service or anything else for that matter, when the mind which has developed it is not clear about its underlying concept.

Newton gave us the theory of gravity after the apple hit him on the head. But, what he did after this idea came to him was all sequential logical science equations and functions, basically recognising the patterns and then, putting the art of experimentation with his observation.

Thus, to come up with something which is of this universe, you have to take something from it itself and then develop and nurture it further, albeit, in a very orderly and disciplined fashion. Develop the base idea with razor sharp focus, and with positive energy.

Remember, it is IDEA, not I DIE, to wake up to come and conquer and be prepared to compete another day.

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Hey, there? This article has been picked to be republished under the ‘Best of TNT’ series. It is a step further for the content to be contagious to make it counted yet again and for the ones who missed it!