One page in one of my journals changed the way I think about innovation.
At the top of the page I’d written one simple prompt:
“26 ways to get more buyers.”
That’s it.
Underneath, I forced myself to keep writing until I had 26 ideas.
Some were ordinary. Some were terrible. And a few turned into ideas that generated millions of dollars over the next 30 years.
What struck me wasn’t the ideas themselves.
It was the process.
Most people wait for inspiration.
I’ve learned that inspiration usually shows up after you’ve been working for a while.
Your brain loves constraints.
Give it a specific problem and a specific target—“Come up with 26 ideas”—and something interesting happens.
The obvious ideas come first. Then you run out. Then you have to dig a little deeper. That’s where the good stuff lives.
Looking back at that page, I realized how many of those ideas eventually became real businesses.
None of those existed when I started writing. They were simply possibilities on a page.
Here’s the part I love most.
One page of 26 ideas is six months of innovation.
You don’t have to do everything. Just pick one idea each week and give it your full attention.
By the end of six months, your business is different.
So here’s a challenge.
Take out a blank sheet of paper.
Write one question across the top that’s important to your business.
Then don’t stop until you’ve written 26 answers.
You may discover that your next decade is hiding on a single page.
You may discover that your next decade is hiding on a single page.