Shared by Misty Gibbs, Founder of Empower Lounge
The Empower Lounge you see today (a scaled down version of my original idea) is the result of letting an idea go, sharing it with many and listening with all ears and gut to my loyal fans from my first web baby, investors I pitched, friends, peers and strangers…who give great advice actually. They’re not afraid to tell you the truth.
If I hadn’t given up control of my original idea, Empower Lounge probably wouldn’t be live today. This is why the article, Let Your Ideas Go, by Nilofer Merchant on Harvard Business Review Blog struck a chord with me.
She says, “There are two ways of holding an idea. One is with a closed fist, and one is with an open palm.
When you hold an idea in a closed fist, you control it. It is yours. And no one else can access it. Ideas held tightly — as if in a fist — can’t be seen. Sure, if you try really hard, you might be able to see the little bits between the cracks. But they’re hard to see, share — or steal.
But an idea held in an open hand can evolve. It has space to grow bigger. Ideas are actually organic, living things. If they have room to expand, they can quite possibly spread, and be picked up by others and grow into something much, much bigger than what you imagined. We see it in organizations when we see global brands like TED decide to open up with TEDx. What was once limited to a few thousand people and two events has grown to be over 3000 events of people caring about ideas that matter — to them, in places as far away as Kibera (a slum in Nairobi Kenya), and as close as London.
