Crazy Dumb Ideas That Became A Breakthrough

Dumb? Not quite.Organizing the world's information, making it universally accessible and useful, and giving it for free when people need it, and making money off of this socialist business model to build a capitalist empire? Dumb, to say the least, but this is precisely what Google did.

Plastic cards that gave you credit when you ran out of currency notes when you needed to shop. Dumb! But a few like Visa and MasterCard were convinced otherwise. Yes, they created value while transforming the way transactions were done. Putting a college yearbook online and redefining social interactions. Dumb! But not for Facebook. What if all classifieds were free?

Dumb! Craig Newmark, Founder of Craiglist, did just that to create his multi billion dollar empire. Earning a comfortable living drawing limited edition cartoons and selling them online. Dumb! Hugh MacLeod, however, was convinced. And boy, did that pay off! Bespoke commissions, book deals, speaking gigs and what not! Yes, cartoons made them all possible. Hackers and anonymous informants holding governments around the world accountable while reinventing journalism.

Dumb! Not if you’re Wikileaks. Visiting every country in the world and chronicling the progress online of this personal quest to see the world, and financing this adventurous journey by selling digital goods. Dumb! Not if you’re Chris Guillebeau. I don’t exactly think these are dumb ideas, in fact, I think they are good ones, the premise being change, nonconformity, cultural shift and value creation for the greater good.Today’s lame ideas can really be tomorrow’s huge breakthroughs.

You never know. Individuals are embracing new lifestyles and companies are tweaking their business models and experimenting with new ones. Sometimes, these dumb changes are so dramatic that they give birth to a new industry altogether. And early movers always have an advantage, as they say. So how dumb becomes smart? Dumb ideas are born in the minds of the crazy ones, the nonconformist rebels who foresee the future today and do things differently today.

There’s another word for these crazy ones – Visionaries. Of course, dumb can be just dumb. It’s entirely possible that your dumb idea will be a “bad” dumb idea, but “good dumb ideas” create polarization. Some people will get it immediately while others will reject it. The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea. Some ideas will take off and others will flounder. Are you the crazy one with a “good dumb idea”? If so, I’m impressed. More power to you. The world needs your story to be complete.