Most of us who are thinking that we should have a startup don’t know “Which is the area that we should target” for example: If you are a blogger who regularly gets a fair amount of traffic, you may feel that you should jump to full time blogging.Or if you are a person, who has a passion for photography,you may feel that you should join a professional course in photography & turn into a full-time profession 
The bottom line is “When you check your think tank , you start getting number of ideas” and in such case, the important part is to look at your inner-self & decide that “An Idea X is the one that I would perceive as a business“….The keyword in the discussion is “IDEA” and I would like to share some of my thoughts on generating ideas :
- Try to see where your interests lie.
- Read books [pertaining to your are of interest] to go a level deeper into your thoughts.You could also be tagged as “BOOK WORM” but that is indirectly a compliment
- Speak with different people since, it would always be great to get a two-sided opinion.They would see you in a different way that how you see yourself.
- Think illogically.Don’t reject ideas immediately.Some of them might be the one what people need/want but which no one has provided.
- Daydream about what you like doing.Dreaming something with open eyes is very important.This is area where your interest lies the most, so think of capitalizing on that strength.
- Brainstorm : Record each & every idea that comes to your mind in a safe place.Do not try to eliminate any of them, even though it may seem absurd.
- Think..Think…Think….When you are having a bath or watching TV or doing something in your leisure time.This is the time that can be best utilized as an “Idea Generator”.
- See the unexpected similarities in the world around you, permit yourself to make unusual associations
- Don’t always think in words, also think in pictures.Use all your senses to get useful ideas.
- Try to foresee “Solutions related to forthcoming problems” for example: Imagine the condition of India in the year 201X & try to visualize a current solution that might solve that forthcoming problem !!!
Reader’s Contribution:
- Open source mind-mapping tool MindMapping, which is useful to organize and represent our ideas with picture.Download the tool from here. [Thanks Manish Panchmatia]
- Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward De Bono. [Thanks Mahesh Pidshetti]
- Think of serving the community back in someway, perhaps the downtrodden or the likes of such people. this only broadens the scope of interaction and perhaps even leads to the higher society people even at these events! [Thanks Srikanth Eswaran]
- See things that you like and see if the reasons you like them or the logic can be applied to other things too.In my case, I love Flickr and wanted to see something like that for Music. Muziboo was born ! [Thanks Prateek Dayal]
- The importance of doing some things only because they may be important links for one’s future business. Actually this was mentioned by Steve Jobs in one of his speeches. He had done some Caligraphy course which became an important tool while designing the GUI for modern OS almost 10 years later.[Thanks Harshad Desai]
Note:
This article was also an IDEA and this is the best place where I could have recorded(& shared) this IDEA
Point [7] also reminds me of an article “Sleep is a luxury at startups” which had an interesting comment from an Open Coffee Club group member – Venkat Ramana, CEO of OutSmart360
Essentially, we never stop working. We are always multi-tasking, looking for the next opportunity, whatever else we are doing. One part of the brain (the bigger part probably) is constantly thinking of solutions and problems and more solutions for them.
If you have some more ideas to generate ideas, than kindly add them in the comments & I would be glad to add them to the article.
Hi Himanshu
This is a nice article.
I would just like to add for point 9. We have an open source mind mapping tool “Freemind” The “Freemind” Web Page:
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Here’s the Wikipedia entry on “mind mapping”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Mapping
Mind Mapping is very useful to organize and represent our ideas with picture.
Regards
Manish Panchmatia
http://www.geocities.com/panchmatia_manish
Hey Himanshu,
I suggest to all wannabe entrepreneurs to read Six Thinking Hats
Brief spoiler ahead of above book..
White Hat- State the facts
Red Hat- State the emotions
Black Hat- State the negative aspects
Yellow Hat- State the positive aspects
Green Hat- Think creatively (outside the box)
Blue Hat- Think about thinking!
Yes the blue hat is tricky, so you should buy the book and get more details.
good post. last but not least you must also think of serving the community back in someway. perhaps the downtrodden or the likes of such people. this only broadens the scope of interaction and perhaps even leads to hifi people even at these events!
Interesting post
another way to generate an idea is to see things that you like and see if the reasons you like them or the logic can be applied to other things too.
In my case, I love flickr and wanted to see something like that for Music. Muziboo.com was born !
Regards
Prateek Dayal
Hi Himanshu,
A very nice article.
Your blog inspires me to jump into the exciting world of entrepreneurship.
I would also mention the importance of doing some things only because they may be important links for one’s future business. Actually this was mentioned by Steve Jobs in one of his speeches. He had done some Caligraphy course which became an important tool while designing the GUI for modern OS almost 10 years later.
Harshad Desai
harshaddesai.blogspot.com
Hey,
@Manish,
@Mahesh,
@Srikanth,
@Prateek,
@Harshad:
Thanks very much for your comments & contribution.Your comments have now been added to the main article.
Thanks.
-Himanshu Sheth