“All you need is just one good idea to change your life.” This is a statement I have repeated severally in my discussions with people who feel stagnated, unproductive or exhausted with thoughts of how to go beyond breaking even.

There is, however, a caveat to this statement: You may never know a good idea or one that is not in the beginning. There are just a few instances where an idea dropped into a person’s heart, and he goes, “Hurray, I’ve found it, and I’m certain it’s going to work,” and the idea actually worked from the onset. Most times, such initial excitements dry up under the harsh sunlight of life’s realities.

However, the real “hurray moment” often comes when ideas are experimented upon, and the potential of those ideas gradually reveals itself. Sometimes, the potential exceeds what the originator had in mind. This becomes the success story of that individual, business, or institution.

So, it is true that one innovative idea can change your life. But before identifying that one idea, it always takes experimenting with multiple ideas whose success rate you cannot determine ab initio. It is during those trials that we discover the one idea that can certainly be termed “good”. Now, that is when the smiles get broad and loud.

Truly, all you need is one good idea to change the course of your life and organization.