Why newcomers can help you create more innovative ideas?
Every time I show my kids magic, they’ll follow up with dozens of crazy impossible ideas. If I pull off my thumb, they’ll go “Dad, can you pull off MY THUMB and put it on my nose?”
“Silly kids. Of course not, that’ll be impossible” are usually my immediate thoughts.
Having accrued a lifetime of knowledge in magic, I usually know immediately if a magic idea is possible or not.
That’s unfortunately the downfall of our knowledge that prevents us from being more innovative. Hear me out …
A long time ago, a videographer friend suggested to me: “Do you know the Seattle gum wall? You should do a trick with it and pitch it to a local TV show”. I gave him the polite “That’s a cool idea”, but in my head, I immediately shot that idea down. Because I have a magic industry insight.
I know if you want to create a trick on television using a city landscape, you’ll likely need to physically alter it. To do so, you’ll need hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire a permit from the city. That’s why those “street magic” tv shows cost a ridiculous budget to produce.
However, the most groundbreaking ideas sometimes come from someone outside of your industry/new in your industry. Whereas they mightn’t have the deep knowledge you possess, their ideas are also unbounded by any restrictions you know.
Sometimes, real magic is on the opposite end of you being curious enough to ask “Ok wait a minute, what if we can get around those seemingly impossible restrictions?”
Three years after my videographer friend suggested that idea to me, I got curious and wondered “what’s the least intrusive thing I could do to alter the gum wall?” “what kind of magic can I create using materials that are already at my disposal” “How can I alter the gum wall without people knowing it”, etc…
Nine months after the initial curious thought, I shot a test drive with a friend and posted it on YouTube. Three years later, I pitched it to a local TV station and we re-created the gum wall trick.
The more knowledge you possess, the more you know what cannot be done. The more you know what’s impossible, the more limiting your ideas might be.
So get curious, invite someone from outside or new in your industry, ask them what ideas they might have.
Their ideas just might surprise you. You just might surprise yourself.
