Tip 1-Open your mind: there is a part of your mind that is responsible for generating ideas and that is the creative or super-conscious mind. This is where beautiful imaginations are generated. This is the home of fantasies; the basement where ideas are created. If you really want to connect with those life changing ideas, you have to align your creative mind with the higher power that controls the universe. And through the force of creation, ideas will start coming to you. How then do you align your super-conscious mind with the higher power in control of the universe? The only way to do that is by asking questions. Whatever question you ask the universe, it has the tendency of granting you the answer through the force of creation. The universe is never tired of responding to your questions. So keep asking and be rest assured that the answers will come to you. 

Tip2-Admire your world: if you truly want to catch that magical idea, you have to learn to look around you. Admire the world around you and think of how to improve it. Admire the bright flowers, green leaves, mountains, hills, waters, animals, humans, technologies, science and whatever you can see around you. Sir Isaac Newton, while sitting under an apple tree, was fascinated and would later ask himself why an apple wouldn’t fall upward instead of downward. This gave birth to the Law of Gravity. Mark Zuckerberg, though tipsy that night, was simply admiring and playing around with Facemesh and the end product is Facebook. Every inventor and creator would tell you, if asked, they simply stumbled into what became the breakthrough because they took interest in their inventions. If you want to be known for that mind blowing idea, in this century, then practice walking on the streets only to observe what you can change or improve. In what you observe, you will see the magical idea you have been waiting for.

Tip3-Find a need: There is always a vacuum that needs to be filled. Bill Gates discovered that need in creating software for computer. For Dangote, it was cement for building houses. Nike Ogunlesi wanted children to have colourful pyjamas she couldn’t find in the market. Ibukun Awosika was concerned about making executive chairs available in offices. Fayo Williams was passionate about placing First Aid boxes in homes and offices. Every successful people saw a need and filled it. The things you see today were created out of the need for them in the society. In fact, one of the simplest ways to generate great ideas is to find a need and fill it. So, look around you, find a need and fill it.

Tip 4-Focus on what you want: You need shut out outside distractions and then focus on what is before your inner eyes. Lots of dreamers get carried away by too many ideas in front of them. But you need to learn to prioritize. You need to learn to focus on what is important. Once you discover a need, focus your time, energy and money to making sure you fill it. Don’t be carried away or distracted by other things around you. Until you have filled the first need you discovered, don’t venture into something else. This is perhaps the first rule to business success.

Tip5-Brainstorm: An Advertising Executive, Alex Osborn, was frustrated by employees’ inability to develop creative ideas individually for ad campaigns. So, he began to host group-thinking sessions and discovered a significant improvement in the quality and quantity of ideas produced by employees. This was the origin of brainstorming as claimed in his book, Applied Imagination. He concluded that brainstorming is far more effective than working alone to generate ideas.  What is brainstorming? It is a group of people coming together to find solutions to a problem by generating ideas on how to solve the problem. I always advise young entrepreneurs to form a cluster of two or more and they should brainstorm about everything. I have a friend that I do this with and most times, we brainstorm late into the night. We have generated countless ideas this way. And these ideas have helped in solving countless problems for us. If you want to generate amazing ideas, find at least someone to always brainstorm with. 

Tip 6-Fantasize: this is simply imagining the impossible. But you know the beautiful thing about the mind; it can achieve whatsoever it can imagine. If you have imagined it, then it is possible. This perhaps breaks the law of impossibility. Fantasizing may have everything to do with impossible pictures, but once these impossible pictures are generated through your super-conscious mind, and stored as dominate information in your subconscious mind; your conscious mind picks the information and sends it out to the universe and the impossible imaginations will become visible or possible reality. This is the only explanation behind every invention that experts called vague and not realistic. But what eventually happened? Inventors always turn what is vague and unrealistic into reality. Don’t forget this piece of timeless advice from Napoleon Hill which says, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Muhammad Ali went on to rephrased and personalized the quote saying, “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it”. No wonder he was the greatest in boxing history. Maybe you should rephrase and personalize the quote too.