The source and course of the River Niger was a mystery
in Europe for many years. Many explorers
died in the quest to map out its course. One such was Mungo Park who saw the River
Niger in 1796 and wrote about it in his book Travels in the interior of Africa 1799. He returned to the Niger for a second time and
died in present day Kwara State.
Human beings have a strong desire to know where things
flow from as knowledge is power. Those
not blessed with the risk-taking curiosity that could potentially kill are
happy to live on the river banks and explain away things they have no knowledge
of with imaginative assumptions and superstitions. The Europeans knew that inland waterways could
open up opportunities for future trade while the locals were happy to fish and
worship river goddesses who placed no demands on worshipers to build boats and
travel the whole length of the rivers. Why engage in speculative travel when
curiosity can be assuaged with colourful myths? Thought the West Africans then.
It appears that since the world began, if a people sat
still long enough, some other people on the move are bound to travel to them. Travellers usually come bearing gifts and
asking flattering questions that stimulate boastful answers. Notes are taken and the guest bids the hosts
farewell only to return with an invading army.
So, where do ideas come from? What makes some people build progressively
bigger ships and develop navigational skills? What makes them set sail despite the numerous
cases of people being ‘lost at sea?’ Why
do others have, ‘let sleeping dogs lie’
as an ideology. No risky ventures, no
experimentation, no hypothesis formulated to be disapproved or validated.
The source of ideas might be harder to explain than
the source of the River Niger it seems. I
have watched so many interviews of people who have achieved great success in
their creative fields. The question of
the inspiration behind a work of art always arises. The answers are always impossible to decipher.
Many say they are inspired by what they
see around them every day. Now, if what
we all see around us is the fountain of ideas and inspiration, how come
everybody is not bringing great ideas to past?
The same event in the neighbourhood inspires people
differently. A man down the street has a
windfall and buys a new car and throws a party for friends which has all the
neighbours talking. One teenager at No.
6 who offers to wash the new car loved it so much he resolves in his heart to
work hard and buy that kind of car as soon as he can afford it. House No. 8 has a guy who knows a lot about
the movements of the guy with the new car and the love he has for his daughter so
decides to get his friends to organise a kidnap of the daughter for a ransom. These are ideas forming in the minds of people
based on what they have seen around them. Even among the positive people, the kind of
ideas people have from the same inspiration varies. A beautiful girl walks by and the painter
reaches for his brush, the tailor grabs his pen and paper and starts to sketch
dresses, the sculptor reaches for his marble, the poet babbles creatively, the
vocalist pours forth a love song and the love-struck designs and builds a Taj
Mahal.
The door-bell
to our minds constantly rings as different influences seek to gain entrance and
gives us ideas. What really matters for
an individual is what he has been taught and how he has been conditioned from
birth. Family, friends, neighbours,
culture, society, faith, willingness to endure hardship years before any material
gain is seen, education and mentorship all play a role in how ideas are
received, analysed and worked on.
One of the things people waste in life are good ideas.
A life of wasted ideas is exemplified by
seeing more and more examples of people succeeding today using ideas you had
thought about twenty years previously and had not acted upon.
If only we reacted to the ideas that come into our
heads with the same zeal as we react to those physiological urges that cannot
be ignored. No matter the coldness of
the night and the cosy warmth of the blankets, a full bladder enforces the idea
of a trip to the toilet on us. Hunger,
thirst, sexual urges are all physiological states producing all kinds of ideas
that produce actions. I have never heard
of anybody ignoring the peristaltic ideas generated by diarrhoea.
Never waste an idea
Write
down every idea that comes to mind in your idea journal
Expect
to have ideas come to you and always have writing materials to hand
Research
the ideas you have
Start
to entertain yourself in the areas where your ideas lie. Watch documentaries
and films themed on the particular subject of your ideas
Learn
to act on your ideas and start small. Celebrate
the successes and learn from the failures
Describe
yourself as a creative person full of new ideas. Write it down next to a picture of yourself.
Ideas
have to be good for others to make it worthwhile. Seek to harm no one