The Idea of Unblemished Mind #62 #cong18

Great ideas are born in a pure and unblemished mind.

1. Encourage kids to generate ideas.
2. Read more books.
3. Stay away from modern media.
4. Take time offline.

Entrepreneur and experienced sales and marketing professional in IT and FMCG. A loving husband and dad.

You can connect with Stan on LinkedIn

By Stan Kuznetsov

Why we don’t turn down the ideas we hear from a child?

If you are a parent, you have probably noticed you don’t turn down the ideas you hear from your child but rather encourage the child to produce more ideas and even sometimes help to bring them to live. I assume this statement is true for most parents, well, at least for many dozens of those I personally interacted with in my life.

Why we don’t destroy a child’s idea immediately on the spot when we know that in most cases it will not lead anywhere but it is rather fun for a child?

Is it because we want the child to develop into a thinking human being? Or is it because we don’t want a child to develop a fear of expression that could potentially evolve into social phobia? Or is it simply because we don’t take them somewhat serious and automatically tend to nod in response meaning “Yes dear, what a great idea! I think you should go for it!”?

In fact, all of the above assumptions are true and could exist in cohesion.

I think we should watch kids more closely and observe how they come up with ideas and how they immediately try implementing them. Kids’ mind is pure, clean and unbiased.

Wonder why?

Kids don’t watch everyday news that full of horror and sad moments. Think of it. All the news we as adults watch on TV or on the Internet are made of things that either about accidents, something went wrong in politics, weather, industry, etc. In fact, kids don’t watch propaganda media at all apart from native advertising in cartoons and movies. Their mind are clear of that rubbish we hear every day and, therefore, allow them to think freely and come to their own conclusions based on their knowledge gathered through learning rather than hear what the media think we should consume, think and do.

My eight-year-old daughter came to me one day and said when she’ll grow up she wants to be a waitress. Imagine my face when I first heard that? A face of a normal parent who wishes their kids to achieve something special, something extraordinary in their future career. I immediately jumped into a conclusion at the back of my brain that such profession is indeed very important but I always considered it to be either a temporary solution for anyone starting their career; a stage in life for someone who’s trying to improve their leaving and took such role out of necessity; or if you’re a restaurant owner. Of course, there are people who claim they love this profession and spend their entire life in it and I respect that too. But as a parent and as a person who’s been in this job in the past I’ve never imagined me wanting to go back to it and become a waiter again, or else it would’ve been in my own restaurant. In fact, I also believe such a profession will be taken by robots in a near future.

What a surprise it was when I heard the answer from my daughter to my question “Why?”

She replied she has an idea to allow guests to bring their pets with them and be served in a normal way, all together.

Did anyone see that coming? A normal person would immediately think it would be a disaster for the restaurant and a huge inconvenience for other guests in the restaurant who don’t have pets or may even hate pets. But not for the creative mind of a child, who saw an opportunity to improve something s/he thinks is currently broken or incomplete.

You see, in my humble opinion, great ideas born in a pure and unblemished mind of an unbiased person that is free from the influence and propaganda of modern media. Let’s stay off it for as long as we can.