The Power of One Idea Can Lead to Success

Successful people are always looking for shortcuts to save time wihtout sacrificing quality. I recently discovered the most amazing concept in cooking: The Shortcut.

Sure, everyone SAYS they'd love to have a home-cooked meal every night, but few people want to actually cook a home-cooked meal every night.

Convenience foods are generally unhealthy and "healthy" convenience foods have lackluster appeal, to say the least.

So what are your options?

1 - Invite your mother to come and live with you.
2 - Hire a personal chef.
3 - Cook ahead and freeze.
4 - Dinner and dish.

Let's take a look at each of these.

#1 - Invite your mother to come and live with you. First off, who's to say that your mother would actually cook every night in exchange for room and board and more time with the grandkids? Plus, remember this is supposed to be time-saving. If you have to scrub and clean all the time just so your mother thinks THIS is how you live ALL the time (i.e., when she's not around), is it really worth it? I didn't think so.

#2 - Hire a personal chef. If you can afford this, it can be a good option. Personally, I like my privacy and unless you live in a well-populated area, it can be hard to find a personal chef who will cook at his/her OWN place and drop it off at yours. Most of them want to shop (you pay cost + a premium) and chop at your house. You'd probably spend less money eating out every night (but then, that wouldn't be "home-cooked" now would it?)

#3 - Cook ahead and freeze. This idea sounds great but requires a tremendous amount of prep. Carefully planned meals, shopping lists and several hours set aside to chop, slice, dice and prepare several meals. Plus if you make big batches, it doesn't take long before your family starts rolling their eyes at chili "again." I thought this was about saving time WITHOUT sacrificing quality.

#4 - Dinner and Dish. What a novel concept! Visit their commercial kitchen for just TWO HOURS and assemble 12 meals (each serves 4-6 people). Take home your meals (some in freezer bags, some in casserole dishes) and freeze, refrigerate, or serve. They buy all the groceries, they chop and prep (AND clean up!) It's like, PERFECT. And only $185 - how much do you spend on groceries for 12 dinners for a family of 4? Menus change monthly.

Are you getting the message here? THIS is what successful people do - they come up wtih ideas that FILL a NEED and they make money in the process.

Someone just like you was probably sitting around one day, and said "I don't mind cooking, you know. It's the grocery shopping, the food prep and the clean up that I could do without. Wouldn't it be great if I could just assemble my family's meals, and then heat them and serve them adn everyone was happy?"

And POOF! a new business concept was born.

How many great ideas have YOU had, but then immediately discounted it with something like "nah, that would never work" or "it probably costs too much money to start something like that" or "I doubt anyone would want to pay for that."

What's the difference between someone who is considered creative and someone who is considered successful?

The successful person took action.

What if -- with the very next idea you have -- you actually did a little bit of research and looked into it before convincing yourself that it can never work?

See, contrary to what you might think, it doesn't always TAKE money to MAKE money. You might have an incredible idea that someone else is willing to BUY and put money into to make it happen! But that can NEVER happen unless you TAKE ACTION.

Someone once said "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." You can be the most creative person in the world, but without ACTION, you won't get nearly as far as the less talented person with more drive and more ambition who is more willing to roll up his/her sleeves and get busy.

Here's your question of the day:

Do you value your ideas enough to begin to take action? Even if you don't execute every idea you have, are you willing to at least consider the possibility of it being realized?