Making Ideas Happen – Book Review

I recently received an advance copy of the Scott Belsky’s (of Behance fame) new book Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality and I have to say straight up, after reading the first 10 pages I was already convinced that this is one of the most useful books ever written for creatives and for many creatives Making Ideas Happen will be the singular most important book they will ever read.

The world is littered with the carcasses of thousands upon thousands of ideas, the majority of which starved and perished because the person or persons who conceived them lacked one key ability, which is the cornerstone of all successful creative endeavours, the ability to execute an idea or to make it happen.

Throughout their lives creatives are told (by parents, friends, teachers, mentors) that the most important things they can have are great ideas. The harsh truth, which is usually discovered when they take their ideas into the world, is that great ideas are a dime a dozen and everyone is creative. This is proved time and time again by the advent of new technologies or services like digital photography or Ponoko, that open a technology or service up to the masses and allow everyone to produce their ideas.

Basically the core of it is that anyone can have ideas and everyone can be creative. So now after completely destroying that beautiful dream world you were living in, I would like to tell you it’s not all bad news. There is way to be able to set yourself and your ideas apart from the masses once more and reclaim your beloved creativity crown.

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality outlines the need to learn how to execute your ideas successfully or to put in another way, develop the ability to be able to take your ideas and make them reality.

Scott Belsky, the man on the mission to organise the creative world (which he has helped do through a suite of fantastic products and services including Behance.net, The 99 Percent Conference, Action Method and now Making Ideas Happen), has distilled 6 years of research, information and learnings on how productive and successful creatives transform their ideas into reality, and collected it all together in one place as a motivating read that makes the process much easier for creatives to figure out.

Making Ideas Happen starts out with three core premises; that anyones capacity to execute ideas can be strengthened through being organised, it is important to nurture connections with your community, and that creatives must develop their leadership capabilities, to not only learn to lead others but more importantly to successfully lead and manage themselves.

Organisation is something most creatives simply are not good at, I myself flit from creative project to creative project, from idea to idea. But Making Ideas Happen has helped me get my act into gear and I am starting to see results, the first of which is working through the many design ideas I have, organising them and then actually getting on the road to producing them.

Another stigma addressed and explored in the book, that almost all creatives have, is the act of actually talking about their ideas. Creatives tend to be very secretive and protective about their ideas, which if everyone is having ideas is a completely unreasonable action because if others are discussing their ideas and developing them and your aren’t then you are already behind in the game. As revealed in the book, creatives should be actively discussing and sharing their ideas so that they can harness the power of collaboration and community.

As you are probably realising, Making Ideas Happen is about deconstructing the myths surrounding being a creative and using real life examples shows you tangible ways to harness the truths revealed to remake yourself into a highly organised, productive and successful creative.

The only problem I can foresee is now that Making Ideas Happen is out in the world, every creative who reads the book is going to be realising their ideas and actually creating their vision. Which means if you don’t read this book then you can kiss your creative success goodbye, because everyone that did read it is going to leave you in the dust with the carcasses of your unrealised ideas.

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality is to put it simply an amazing book. It will help creatives bring into realitiy the hundreds of ideas in the pages of their sketchbooks through beautifully simple techniques and advice. My advice – borrow, beg, or buy a copy of Making Ideas Happen, asap, read it, then read it again and keep it handy for reference!

These might also interest you.

• Selling Ideas
• AGIdeas In Conversation & Advantage Giveaway
• Link Love 21 November
• Did You Know? February 18 2009
• Product Designer @ Moose Enterprise

April 15, 2010