Good Idea, Now What?

Today, I am pleased to share a review of a book recently published by my good friend Charles Lee. It’s called Good Idea, Now What? and it is one of the best books I have read on the subject of bringing ideas to implementation and execution. The first time I met Charles, he was sharing with individuals at West Virginia University and in the city of Morgantown, WV as part of a week of events called “Another World Is Possible.”  Charles spent an afternoon talking about how to take an idea from the starting block to implementation, and gave some fantastic examples. The same evening, he gave a presentation on the subject of slavery and human trafficking and gave people tangible steps to take toward eradicating modern day slavery and the trafficking of human beings. The next morning, while I was taking him to the Pittsburgh airport, he told me about a small conference he was hosting two weeks later for idea makers that was called Idea Camp. After talking it over with other members of our team at Nuru, I made it a point to go. Everything I’ve seen Charles produce or implement, has been done with thoughtful excellence and quality and with an end result of helping others to do better at doing good in the world.

As I picked up the book, I must admit,  I wondered if the world needed another book on getting things done or idea making. Books like ReWork, Making Ideas Happen, and The War of Art all seemed to hone in on the subject—what more could possibly be said?  Charles’ book is actually quite remarkable. It is a series of études within a book. He has put the book together so that individual chapters are short, and easy to draw out applications. He uses real world examples from both his own life and the experiences of other idea makers to drive home his points, and he talks about subjects that can be challenging for creatives and ideamakers to talk about, things like team chemistry, implementation, and maintaining a family life and boundaries for work.

With each new section, I was thoroughly impressed with both the quality of content, the brevity of words to communicate the content, and the practical next steps offered to individuals to take ideas to reality. I believe this book could be helpful for individuals involved in start-ups as well as for teams.  This book is perfect for creative folks who have a hard time staying grounded to push their ideas into implementation as well. The chapters are short enough that anyone can pick up and read and think through application points for individual concepts. For folks who chronically start books and cant finish, the book is set up to be read as a whole, or read as chapters in isolation.

If you know, have heard, or are in other ways familiar with Charles’ work, you know that this book is a must read. If not, and you have an entrepreneurial bent, you should give this book a read and add it to your short list of books that are motivating, informative, and practical for converting ideas into reality.  Buy it today,  and, if you have time to insert it into your calendar, you should make it a point to participate in a conference Charles’ consultancy created, called !deation in Chicago this May.