Bright 'uns Rock
What is it about 'flashes of genius'? How is it some people have them and others do not? No use trying to search for flashes of genius, they come orthey don't. Of course, the internet has provided genius to be entreprneureal - like the Edison discoveries of the electronic age, like the Royal Society in the 17th Century - each age provides the tools for a few 'chosen' individuals to explore wonderous new knowledge and media to develop, discover and gratify. Over the last few months, three 'geniuses' have caught my eye on the net. Three very different ideas, but each rather wonderful in their own way.
Beau Bo D'or: I discovered this image altering chap through www.b3ta.com about 3 years ago. He has constant, quick and often very funny takes on current and not so current affairs on his own website http://www.bbdo.co.uk/ - his images are regularly pinched by newspapers and magazines and he is rarely credited - par fo the course in his line of hobby. If you look, you'll recognise many images that became viral. Nice fella too. His flashes of genius don't make him money and provide just a tiny bit of fame, but they are regular - and in that sense, he scores well with the other two.
One Red Paperclip: Been in the news a bit lately - but for sheer audacity, this guy Kyle MacDonald has got the stupidest idea and it works. Why the heck not, I say! http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
Million Dollar Homepage: Such a famous website from such a simple idea that spawned hundreds of copycat sites. More fool the person who spent a hugely inflated $36,000 for the last few pixels only to watch the hit rate drop to almost zero immediately afterwards - of course!!!! The blog is a good read, and my claim to fame is that I came upon this site when there were only $3,000 or so worth of pixels sold. For flashes of genius in the internet age, this has to be right up there. http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/
So, what sparked these thought in me today? Well, I had my own, very mini flash of genius in the middle of a long meeting with my bank manager.
I've been thrashing out a new business proposal which looked promising, when it struck me - a way of adjusting the business plan to make something that was slightly risky suddenly very, very sound and profitable. Okay - dull in the extreme to anyone else, but for me and the bank manager, we were both frothing at the mouth. What was due to be a 15 minute meeting ended up being 2 fruitful and wonderful hours! I've been working on this project for 4 months, and the simplest solution came at the denument. Very odd, very exciting and, well, you an probbly tell, I'm well chuffed.
Of course, I'm long enough in the tooth to know it can all go wrong, but at least I can start to envisage me having my own PA in the next few months and, long term, my dreams of building my own house from scratch are no longer pie-in-the-sky. LOADS to do, but, hey - it's one heck of a start.
I left the bank walking on air, got into the car and promptly had a nosebleed. I hate hot weather.