The Paradox

Troubles are a brainstormer’s best friend. This apparent paradox is true because problems are the raw materials which brainstorming turns into valuable ideas.

Brainstorming is a device, which does not best dance the minuet of polite discussion or wander vaguely among the gardens of philosophical thought. It is a shirt-sleeved laborer who rolls up his sleeves and goes to work to solve specific problems with specific solutions.

You will find that it eats up problems at a frightful rate. It is like the new electronic computers, which solve the most involved bookkeeping or calculating problems in hours. Its owners have to hunt up new jobs for the monster’s appetite. The same thing can be true of brainstorming if you really put it to work at every level and in every department of your business.

This is an extremely healthy situation in which to find yourself, for problem-finding is the cornerstone of creative thinking. The businessman, who sees no problems but sits back, smugly content with his methods, is the businessman who goes bankrupt. The businessman who continues to see the same old problems and accept them as an unchanging part of his life is just as limited and just as doomed.

Problems-seemingly insoluble, irritating, frustrating, aggravating, frightening problems-are the birthplace of new ideas. Duncan Hines was a printing salesman who had a hard time finding decent places to eat while he was traveling his territory. You all know what he did with that problem. He sent out Christmas cards to his friends who were on the road, recommending good places to eat. The demand for them became so great that recommending good food for many travelers became his career-and a very profitable one it is.