If you fall in love with an idea, you won't see the merits of alternative approaches-and will probably miss an opportunity or two. One of life's great pleasures is letting go of a previously cherished idea. Then you're free to look for new ones. What part of your idea are you in love with? What would happen if you kissed it goodbye?

Roger von Oech

Categorized in : Goodbye Letting Go Falling In Love

Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.

Roger von Oech

failure business work

Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.

Roger von Oech

looks world thinking

Most people think of success and failure as opposites, but they both are products of the same process.

Roger von Oech

opposites people thinking

By the time the average person finishes college, he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes, and exams. The right answer approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems where there is in fact only one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t this way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers- all depending on what you’re looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.

Roger von Oech

taken college life

It's important for the explorer to be willing to be led astray.

Roger von Oech

exploration willing important

Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.

Roger von Oech

trying-something-new inspirational new-day

It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out-of-date.

Roger von Oech

creativity letting-go inspirational

If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered.

Roger von Oech

errors use ideas

Flexibility is a requirement for survival.

Roger von Oech

flexibility requirements survival

We grow up thinking that the best answer is in someone else's brain. Much of our education is an elaborate game of 'guess what's in the teacher's head?' What the world really needs to know right now is what kind of dreams and ideas are in your head.

Roger von Oech

growing-up dream teacher

What excuses stand in your way? How can you eliminate them?

Roger von Oech

excuse way

The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility... Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding. And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals.

Roger von Oech

wall goal people

When everyone thinks alike, no one is doing very much thinking.

Roger von Oech

thinking

There is a close relationship between the "ha-ha" of humor and the "aha!" of discovery.

Roger von Oech

close-relationship discovery

Look for the second right answer.

Roger von Oech

right-answers answers looks

New ideas are not born in a conforming environment.

Roger von Oech

environment born ideas

Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit.

Roger von Oech

life-is-like trying inspirational

Going to a junkyard is a sobering experience. There you can see the ultimate destination of almost everything we desired.

Roger von Oech

junkyard ultimate destination

Here's my advice: Go ahead and be whacky. Get into a crazy frame of mind and ask what's funny about what you're doing.

Roger von Oech

crazy mind advice

Most brilliance arises from ordinary people working together in extraordinary ways.

Roger von Oech

working-together ordinary people