Back from Writing; What a Concept

Writing. What a concept. I have been away writing and modeling some new ideas for the past months. Please excuse my absence.

But it is interesting that concept drives writing too. Without a clear, focused and layered concept, writing becomes just structure. Stories and experience become just events. It is concept that connects what you write with the audience. It is what links the story or experience to their own lives. Events are always unique; they can be similar, but they are always unique. Though there can be hundreds of weddings in any one week, each is unique. Yet the concept of "love ever after" is a shared concept. The meaning behind events is what we share.
That is what concept captures.

In writing something, your readers don't necessarily read what is behind your words; they feel what's behind them. It is intuitive.

Communication doesn't just exist at one level. We look. We read. We hear. But we also feel. We intuit meaning. And it is there that concept is found.

Copyright, Winston Perez, 2009

Sole of an Idea: What's a sneaker?

True story.

“What’s a sneaker?” I said. It sounded obvious⎯ in fact, a bit too obvious. That’s the question I asked when I was handed a new sneaker by the CEO of this one company. A bit indignant, he retorted, “What do you mean, what’s a sneaker? Hm.”

Cut to later that night at dinner: Quite a bit more indignant, that same CEO leaned across the table, over his spicy calamari appetizer, looked me in the eye and said (I am paraphrasing here) “I have been doing this for 15-plus years. I know my business. I know what a sneaker is.”

There was this long pause. Finally, he continued, “We’re going to do this… this thing you do, Concept Modeling™, because of your reputation. But if you feed me back what I just fed you today, well… Hm! (pause) I know my business.”

Calmly I said, “I understand.” I watched him as he bit into his spicy calamari.

The fact is, he didn’t know. None of us know. If we did, we would have created Nike.

The “sneaker” has changed over the years. To be more accurate, I should say that the concept of a sneaker has changed. At one time sneakers were just for sports. Now they are fashion. Think of it this way: The idea of a sneaker hasn’t changed, it is still a type of shoe, but the concept behind it has changed.

Sometimes, if you change the concept behind an idea, you change the idea ⎯ sometimes forever. Yes, I know it sounds obvious. Hm!

True story.

(Its from some Concept Modeling™ work I did in 2006. Of course, some names/terms have been changed to protect, well me. Hm!)

IDEA DEVELOPMENT: THE CONCEPT OF IDEA

I have never wanted to write or talk about this work.

It was a little advantage, a strategic methodology in the work that I do and, O.K., I didn’t want other consultants stealing it. I guess I have grown up a little —but just a little.

So this is it: There was a moment in my life that changed the way I think forever. This blog, the coming updated website, my upcoming book are all products of that 1989 incident — what I call my super massive eureka moment. 

When you have a eureka moment, your mind shifts a little and you see something in a new light. Often times, this involves very obvious things. You stare and think, you turn your head to one side and think some more; you stare and feel something rising up before your very eyes as if you were blowing up a wad of pink, sugary-sweet chewing gum when suddenly it POPS! You think “Oh my God!” and suddenly the thing you thought you knew takes on a different meaning. You just hit upon your unique idea.

I call my moment back in 1989 a super massive eureka moment because I not only hit upon an idea, but also hit upon the concept of idea. The latter is the fact that ideas exist--AND that they have a nature that makes them unique.

We all have ideas but do we really know what ideas are, themselves? The next time you come up with an idea, stop a moment, put the idea aside, and think about what an idea is itself. By simply doing that exercise you can change the way you think.

I’ll talk about that and the eureka moment in my next blog. Copyright 2009, Winston Perez