In my experience change of any kind takes too long to happen. It has been stymied in part by that age old saying “You cannot change the world; you can only change yourself.” Others have said it differently: “You can’t change people, so be the change you wish to see in them.” Those thoughts may work in a transcendental meditation class, but they won’t cut it in the world of moving up the corporate ladder.
Let me be clear: I am not the change I wish to see in you. That perspective is just too limited in scope, and it is also too self-centered for my magnanimous thinking. In fact I don’t wish you to act like me or to hold my point of view on any given topic at all. I merely would like you to consider my thoughts on the subject at hand, and if they resonate with your own ideas, then perhaps you can assimilate them and present them in a new way, in your way, to those influential others in your sphere of influence that are not and don’t want to be a part of mine. Just don’t stray too far from the central idea and I will be a happy guy.
We all know people are resistant to change. And they prefer to believe the best ideas all stem from somewhere deep within themselves. They especially don’t want to give you (or me) credit for ideas that seem to have either oozed up from within themselves, or that could have done so with a little more contemplation on their part. That’s good enough for me. In fact, I am so generous about authorship, I am probably on another subject far removed from this one while they are thinking about from whence it came.
I haven’t had many original ideas, perhaps none at all. But this one comes from a part of my memory banks that keeps telling me it originated somewhere in my brain. It goes like this: Most ideas that incorporate a grand vision need to have the support of at least several dozen people with more influence than I have. The real task is not in trying to persuade them of the merit of my idea, but to get them to believe it was their own idea all along. Whose idea are they ready to run with, anyway, mine (yours) or theirs?
Now, here comes the brilliant part. You have a world-changing idea. It is one of those ideas that could make you a legend in your own mind. But in your most contemplative moment you know that there is not another human being who stands ready to give you credit for it—not even if you knock his socks off when you tell him about it—if you tell him about it. So, you can either keep it to yourself for all eternity, or…you can document it, date it, copyright it, and put it in safe storage for one year. Then you approach your person of interest, and you begin a conversation that proceeds along this line: “You know, John, I have been thinking about your idea from every angle, and I have to admit, it is downright brilliant!” He won’t have a clue about what you are about to say next, but you will have his undivided attention. You then lay out the crux of your idea while intermittently interjecting “Damn, but you are smart, a pure genius” and other BS like that. And unless he is really smart, he will buy it hook, line, and sinker.
By the time you are done convincing him that he is actually as smart as he would like to be, you’ve got him right where you want him. You then tell him you have done a cost analysis of his idea, found out where the money will come from that will make it a fact, and how to disseminate his idea to all those above him—and to even create the presentation that he will make in convincing others that he is the genius of all time. You just don’t mention anything at all about the copyrighted papers that are safely tucked away in your vault and in your lawyer’s vault.
If his ego is as inflated as is the great majority of tiny thinkers, you’ve got this bozo “by the balls,” to use another old expression.
Let me say that I have actually put this bit of deception into place on a small scale once or twice in the past, so I know that it works. I never had the aforementioned “balls” to apply it in a circumstance when big dollars and big rewards were part of the equation. So let’s just say it is grounded in facts, with a bit of fiction added that can be modified by the reader in order to realize rewards suitable to your own circumstances.
Surely you have the creative juices and the imagination to put into practice a way to actually change the world without having to wait five or ten thousand years for human nature to change people. All it takes is a short cut. Or two.
Now, get out there and change the world. Posterity is waiting.
Interesting concept. I have noticed that superiors of all kinds seem to like to hijack ideas of their subordinates as their own. Knowing the nature of hierarchy and its sharklike and Machiavellian practices, having proof of the origination of the idea, especially, a patent or published concept paper, certainly is necessary in the real, cutthroat world. When the "wheels" get a hold of an idea, things began to happen.
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How to Change the World
