Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Really small and quick read. Very inspiring! My professor recommended this for me. I recommend this to anyone that is a designer or a business or even for self developmental purposes. It will truly change you for an innovative boost.

This book analyses deeply the creative process through interesting cases. It helps very well the understanding of the way you should organize your creativity.
Very interesting because it's precise and clearly explained.

Not finished, but it is an interesting read so far, and a useful primer on how best to use the Action Method organization tool (created by the author's company). I really like the Action Method - the main goal seems to be simplifying project management, to improve project realization and completion. Some good fundamentals are laid out throughout the book, whether you choose the Action Method as your organization system or something else. It definitely makes sense to at least check out the action method (and some of the other creative organization tools they offer). [...]

Since I am not a creative artist, an entrepreneur, or even a business person, I expected that Making Ideas Happen would be a dry, abstruse, intimidating book that was excessively philosophical on the one hand, and overbearingly specialized on the other. Instead, I was delighted to find that it was a well written, readable, and, at times, entertaining product that went far beyond usefulness in a business context. The author, Scott Belsky, has impeccable credentials. He completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell, his graduate studies at Harvard Business School, drew from his experiences at Goldman Sachs, and founded Behance, "a company that develops products and services to organize the creative world". Making Ideas Happen represents the culmination and assimilation of knowledge gained from hundreds of interviews with the CEOs, Vice Presidents, Chief Designers, and Directors of departments of companies such as Apple, Google, and Zappos. From these interviews, as well as his own experiences and other information obtained from conferences and readings, Belsky extracts the most salient aspects of why these companies have become giants in their respective fields, and how they have been so successful in "making ideas happen". Belsky's writing style is also a true delight. His use of poignant and highly relevant quotations, such as "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration" (Thomas Edison), and of fascinating proverbs and clichés, such as "You don't know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out," is refreshing. Also, what might be called helpful "sound bites" are scattered throughout each chapter, e.g., "an idea executed for an audience of one is an awful waste of potential inspiration and value for the greater good," and "the best indicator of future initiative is past initiative". In addition, Belsky uses amusing, yet highly informative personal anecdotes to relate certain points. For example, he describes his experiences while attending a workshop run by Jay O'Callahan ("one of the greatest storytellers in the world") to introduce the technique of "appreciations," which is built on positive feedback and forbids criticism, even if "constructive". However, the single most significant contribution made by Belsky is not his incisive writing style or his use of quotations, clichés, or anecdotes, but rather his ability to pull it all together into a nice, neat package in which the relationships of the components are made explicit. Few points in the book (some counterintuitive) are surprising. However, by integrating material across a huge body of data, Belsky has demonstrated that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Two thumbs up for Making Ideas Happen!

This was our web professionals book club's second book. Of the seven people who read it, only one managed to finish it. The rest of us all bogged down and quit in the third section, a fluffy little bit about "leadership." We are all either working for the man or heads of one or two person consultancies. There wasn't much to be gained.

The first part of the book actually had some good productivity tips. I use the Action Method and its products, so I found it illuminating with regard to using that system better (and it really is a good system if you're a creative).

The second part of the book was about the value of community. Now, if you're the type who cries in a corner or becomes heinously defensive whenever someone criticizes your work or offers feedback, you need to read this section. But if you, like myself, have learned to extract feedback and opinions from other humans as joyously as though they were nuggets of gold from a riverbed, you probably don't need to read this chapter.

There was too much name-dropping and self-aggrandizement in this to hold my interest. The copy was repetitive without being deep. The consensus of the group was that the book could have been a third of its size and far more interesting with the benefit of a proper editor.

Also, the Goldman Sachs name-dropping and references seemed comically pre-depression, dating the work and giving it an almost macabre feel.

Perhaps due to my particular quirks, no book in recent years has been more helpful than Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen. We all have ideas, even good ideas. What sets the people with lots of ideas apart from successful ideas is turning them to reality. That’s the rub.

Belsky, the founder/CEO of Behance. They’re the ones behind two other great books published by 99U. Making Ideas Happen expands out from Thomas Edison’s quote, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” It’s not so much coming up with the idea, but the follow-up that leads to success. Here’s Belsky’s Quick Primer:

* You have ideas that you want to make happen.
* You can develop the capacity to make ideas happen.
* Making ideas happen = Ideas + Organization + Communal forces + Leadership capability.
* Organization enables you to manage and ultimately execute your ideas.
* The forces of community are invaluable and readily available.
* Fruitful innovation requires a unique capacity to lead.

The book starts out by promising an Action method that will help ideas happen. While this sounded interesting, I did not find this part interesting. Not cos' it was bad. More cos' I had read about such methods before and there is no one shoe fits all method. And, Scott acknowledges it. The parts that came after this were more interesting and informative. Specifically, the chapters and parts that talk about tips and tricks for execution, how to engage and leverage community, and how to lead creative efforts. The leadership part is the shortest and packed the most punch (for me).

I'd put this book in the same pile as "Achievement Habit" and "Creativity Inc".

Anyone with much experience with brainstorming sessions already knows that "making ideas" is quite easy. Making them HAPPEN is quite a different challenge and a much more formidable one. Again I am reminded of Thomas Edison's admonition, "Vision without execution is hallucination." What we have in this book is a remarkably comprehensive as well as a lively and informative discussion of how almost anyone can develop the capacity to master a process that Scott Belsky characterizes as a "primer":

1. You have ideas (yours or someone else's) that you want to make happen: "Most ideas get lost in what I call the `project plateau,' a period of intense execution where your natural creative tendencies turn against you." Belsky explains what these tendencies are as well as how to avoid of overcome them.

2. Making ideas happen == ideas + Organization = Communal forces = Leadership capability: "We will dive into ach of these forces and discuss how you should use them in your own creative pursuits." Belsky delivers in abundance on that promise.

3. Organization enables you to manage and ultimately execute your ideas...or someone else's: "The Action Method [that Belsky explains and discusses in detail] is a composite of the best practices for productivity shared by creative leaders." Belsky has picked the brains of hundreds of the most productive creative thinkers and shares their most valuable insights, as well as his own. Better yet, he organizes them in the aforementioned Action Method, a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system to make ideas happen.

4. The forces of community are invaluable and readily available: "Ideas don't happen in isolation. You must embrace opportunities to broadcast and then refine your ideas through the energy of those around you." The greatest teams achieve their success with communication, cooperation, and most important of all, collaboration.

5. Fruitful innovation requires a unique capacity to lead: "While the tendency to generate ideas is rather natural, the path to making them happen is tumultuous. This book is intended to outfit you with the methods and insights that build your capacity to defy the odds and make your ideas happen." The process of effective execution of ideas, once refined through rigorous collaboration, requires leadership that combines tenacity with patience, vision with a compulsion to make that vision a reality, and personal integrity with what Ernest Hemingway once characterized as a "built-in, shock-proof crap detector."

Belsky devotes an entire chapter to self-leadership, calling his reader's attention to the fact that "as you lead others in creative pursuits, you are your greatest liability. Self-leadership is about awareness, tolerance, and not letting your natural tendencies limit your potential." What does he suggest?

"Find a Path to Self-awareness. Our best hope for staying on track is to notice when we stray and to figure out why - to be self-aware. Self-awareness is a critical skill in leadership but it is deeply personal. It is not about our actions but abut the emotions that trigger them.

"Develop a Tolerance for Ambiguity. Patience in the face of ambiguity helps us to avoid rash decisions driven by our emotions instead of our intellects. We must use time to our advantage to temper our tendency to act too quickly.

"Capture the Benefits of Failure. When things go wrong, there are three questions we should seek to answer:

o What external conditions may explain the failure?
o What internal factors may have compromised your judgment?
o Are there any gems in the unintended outcomes?

"Avoid the Trap of Visionary Narcissism. The tendency to think that a given opportunity or challenge is a one-off persists. I have come to call this propensity 'visionary narcissism' - it is a leader's default thinking that he or she is an exception to the rule."

The word "how" is frequently used throughout my review because, as I hope my comments suggest, Belsky is a diehard, world-class pragmatist who was determined to learn everything he could about how to make ideas happen. The observations he shares in this brilliant book are anchored in a wealth of real-world experience (his and others'); his recommendations, therefore, are research-driven. For those who now struggle to understand the obstacles between vision and reality, as well as for those who now struggle to overcome these obstacles, this is a "must read."

Ideas and innovation are popular fodder for all kinds of books, with plenty of spiral-bound advice on how to have more ideas, which ones to focus on and generally how powerful new "blue sky" thinking can be. The only problem with a list of ideas is that too often none of them amount to anything. Anyone who has come out on the other side of a "great" brainstorm that has led to few results knows this already. The mission of this book should be obvious from its title ... and Scott manages to deliver on that promise by sharing a philosophy that he has created out of frustration--The Action Method.

Simple yet powerful ideas abound in this book - like maintaining a "backburner" for great ideas which may not be relevant right now, reducing projects to their most simplistic state and how to master the underrated skill of prioritization. In an inspired moment later in the book, Scott advises the reader to "develop a tolerance for ambiguity." Scott himself, however, demonstrates no such tolerance in this book and as a result you'll find his strong point of view both enlightening and empowering. Used as a companion with the amazingly useful (and free) Behance.net website - this book will help you give your ideas the full and fruitful life they deserve. (This review was first published along with an interview with the author on the Influential Marketing blog)

really? a book about creative people where the solution to every problem is to 'be more organized'. lame. should have returned it.

i'm very disappointed considering the content behance normally generates.

It's interesting that so many reviewers feel passionately about this book one way or the other. I personally, greatly enjoyed the book, but will fully admit to enjoying the Behance website 99u. I also knew enough of the book to realize that it is in fact about how a creative individual produces results, not the usual "break out your inner creative" peptalk used by so many authors.

For serious artists who have more ideas than time, the temptation to move onto a new project constantly exists. If you're a writer, musician, painter, photographer, or other artist who has these kinds of problems (unfinished projects, tons of notes on potential projects, self-sabotaging a project as it nears completion), then you'll find this book helpful.

In general, the book suggests an organization structure for creatives, with an eye towards producing tangible results. It also provides a section about leadership of creative individuals, which could come in handy for anyone in the marketing or advertising fields. (I personally found this section helpful in my day job, since I've managed creative projects for the past 6 years.)

So is the book for everyone? No. But if you're a creative individual who wishes that they had more to show for their efforts, or want to simply become a bit more structured in how they create and manage their time, I recommend the book. I'm sure I'll be revisiting it again

in the the store world of raving five star reviews, "lives up to expectations", might not seem that enthusiastic, but considering all the books of this genre that don't, its quite a compliment. Its also a subtle message of the book - there are no magic forumulas, productive creative people work slowly, incrementally and steadily, just like other professions.

If you have read books like Getting things Done, or read a lot in this genre some of this may be familiar but its presented here in a sober, reasoned manner.

In the first half of the book, Belsky presents a simplified task system similar to GTD but far less complicated.

The second half, if devoted to making a strong argument for collaboration - even for individual artists. He uses the impressionists as an example- and I immediately thought of other examples - 1920s paris and american writers, and the preRaphealites . With both examples, I used to ponder whether it was 'luck' that one of them 'made it' an the others road the successful artist's coattails. Belsky makes a strong case that it was the sharing of ideas that strengthened all the arists's work.

I had big expectations for this book, but it doesnt go beyond a marketing pamphlet for 'action method' which happens to be a tool that the author is involved with.

I really like Behance and was expecting a deeper, substantial exploration of different techniques to end ideation and start execution - and if/when it's worthwhile to switch back and forth; how to stop dwelling over details, how to handle new insight coming during execution and etc.

Nah, nothing. Just 'use our to-do list tool and things will magically happen'

--

Update: Please note that Action Method - the tool - is being phased out. I think that speaks out for how successful it was.

Scott Belsky attempts to explain how to translate ideas into action. It is a nice try, but doesn't quite make it.

What I liked about this book:

**the simple, yet powerful breakdown of tasks into: action, reference and backburner. Scott tells us to focus on the action steps.

**explanation of creative types: dreamers, doers and incrementalists. By understanding what drives these folks, you can better communicate with them.

**concrete examples of creative companies that have successfully followed this plan. IDEO is one great example.

What missed the mark with this book:

**it's very repetitive. Scott could have made his points in half the pages. Perhaps he should look for a better editor next time.

**not enough detail about how companies have successfully moved from creative ideas into concrete actions. I believe that success stories will help convince those creative types that process can be a good thing.

**too much mention of Scott's company, Behance. At times, the book seemed like a thinly disguised plug for his company.

**the suggestions are pretty basic Project Management 101. Anyone who's ever had to manage a project knows these steps. Perhaps the creative folks need to hear this though.

In spite of the negatives, I thought this book was an interesting read for anyone, creative type or not. It will help you organize your ideas and also help you deal with other creative types.

Belsky's main idea is that creative people tend to have lots of ideas on how to improve products or services, but they have difficulty executing those ideas. And that's crucial because ideas are cheap. We have tons of ideas that come and go. But success only comes to those who can execute. Belsky believes that "making ideas happen" is simply a matter of satisfying a formula: Ideas + Organization and Execution + Forces of Community + Leadership Capability. With the exception of ideas, he then focuses on each element of the equation.

Regarding organization, Belsky offers a simplified version of David Allen's Getting Things Done. Similarly, Belsy's system is one of capture, categorization, prioritization, and review. Belsky's key idea is the "action step." These are concrete things to do (like Allen's "next steps."). As for execution, Belsky says to focus on those action steps, and employ methods to keep moving forward. These include things like killing ideas quickly and learning to fail faster. In this section, Belsky starts to introduce ideas mentioned in his talk. But the key is to locate the real gem ideas, work to refine them, and bring them to fruition.

Belsky believes in sharing your ideas widely. If you find others responding favorably to the idea, you'll know you're onto something. Additionally, he thinks such publicity and transparency will help you build a fan base, meet new people, and even encourage competition. Your fan base will serve to keep you accountable. New people might spark new ideas. And competitors will keep you motivated.

Lastly, Belsky talks about leadership: how to manage a team of creatives, and how to manage yourself. To successfully manage your team, Belsky talks about non-salary rewards, building in flexibility, and avoiding consensus (in the sense of avoiding lowest common denominator results). To successfully manage yourself, Belsky stresses self-awareness, because it will allow you to remain confident and comfortable in times of ambiguity or setback, to avoid narcissism, and to engage in contrarianism.

I found the book interesting, but not great. The book is probably most useful for someone about to establish a start-up business consisting of a few employees. But the freelancer working on his own will also find some useful advice. The chapters on organization are execution are the most helpful (but nothing really new if you've read Getting Things Done). The chapter on engaging the community are also useful, now that everyone stresses the need to use social media and to build a platform. Although Belsky says the book is geared toward "creatives," it's really focused on those who want to create start-up after start-up. Although job security is decreasing these days, so is start-up funding. Although many people may like the idea of being their own boss, some will likely have difficulty with the idea of embracing failure as calmly (if not eagerly) as Belsky suggests. I'd suggest checking out his talk (look for the 99% Conference and the "Idea Plateau") and maybe skimming the book. No need to hang on every word.

Ideas are powerful things, even though not all ideas are good or workable ones. This book examines why so many good ideas end up forgotten before anyone gets started on making them a reality. His premise is that most people let their good ideas fizzle away without taking action, or after taking action in the wrong way and failing to bring the idea to fruition.

This isn't a book to help you generate ideas, however. The author assumes that you have your own store of good ideas or you know how to brainstorm for them. The process picks up after you have an idea that's worth pursuing. By speaking to things like proper organization, help and mentoring, and the steps to take to actually pursue an idea systematically, he sets down a roadmap for making an intangible idea into a reality.

A lot of the book is essentially made up of case studies of successful people who had good ideas and brought them to life. His basic plan is that you have to be organized enough to know what you need to do to make the idea work, you need help and you need to be able to lead. He gives practical advice in all these areas, making this a good volume for someone who feels full of ideas but doesn't know how to take the next step.

It is not the ability to generate ideas, but rather the ability to execute them that hinders most of us - an interesting, and a provocative thesis. The author provides a number of effective and ineffective examples of creative individuals and teams and tries to dissect the reasons for their respective successes and failures: the action method, the personality types, leadership, and more. If you are familiar with David Allen's GTD methodology (if not, I highly recommend you check out his books), then many of the highlighted ideas and suggestions will ring true: define the next step, identify the context, plan ahead and review.

Interesting read, and a good motivating refresher to bias yourself towards action. If you're already a diehard GTDist, then this will be review, and for those who are not, this will serve as a well illustrated introduction to the method.

Execution is the key to making ideas happen. Lots of people have good or great ideas, but only a few actually turn them into reality. Take for example those two doofuses (doofi?), Da Vinci and Galileo. I don't remember which but one of them came up with the idea of a helicopter way back when, and the other had the idea for a submarine. Imagine if they had been able to execute their ideas and turn them into reality. Who knows how much sooner the Beatles would have written Yellow Submarine, or how much earlier propeller beanies would have been invented. What a couple of losers.

Anyway, Scott Belsky's point is that you can only successfully execute ideas if you follow a specific type of program that includes: being biased toward action; exposing your ideas to your networks to harness feedback and maintain your own commitment; and practice leadership skills that support the execution of ideas. For the action component of his program, I like his recommendation of separating notes and information into action steps, reference and back burner items. The first and third tend to get lost among the second, which comprises probably 80 percent of the data and info you collect. By properly segregating the first, you have a clear list of what action steps you need to take; by segregating the third, you have an accessible repository of ideas whose time have not yet come, but may in the future. The steps and advice are not entirely new, but Belsky's explanation for their need is excellent.

Idea generators are probably least comfortable with the second task: getting your ideas out into the open. For myriad reasons, people want to keep their ideas close to their chest. The result is: the ideas don't go anywhere, and remain only fantasies in the creator's mind. Idea creators absolutely need to bounce their ideas off their network's wall.

The leadership component is somewhat more abstract, but the interesting and different suggestion here from Belsky is the necessity of resorting to ideacide, that is the killing off of your own ideas, when those ideas become an obstacle to executing other ideas. One consolation is that unlike other "cides", this one is reversible. Belsky rightly raises the issue that idea generators often obstruct their own success by starting down a new idea track before fully completing a promising idea.

One area where I found the book deficient is in Belsky's claim that ideas "just come" and the implication that ideas can not be generated from structured practice. The work of Edward De Bono, Bryan Mattimore, Roger von Oech, and Michael Michalko, to name just a few, completely debunk this perspective. I was very surprised that Belsky made this claim, but I suppose it was meant to strengthen his argument that not enough emphasis is placed on the execution part.

This fault aside, this is a great and necessary book for anyone who wishes to not just create ideas but actually see them come to fruition. Imagine how famous Da Vinci and Galileo would be now had they read this book - I suppose they were also illiterate.

Just what the world needs - another marketing book? We've been told how to bring things to market in the traditional sense, in the new world order, in the digital world, in nearly every kind of competitive battlefield by authors and books too numerous to mention. So does the world really need one more?

Actually, yes.

Scott Belsky, a former Goldman Sachs executive, is now the founder of a company called Behance; a virtual firm devoted not to traditional marketing approaches, but rather to the concept of sharing ideas in the creative community and efficiently executing on those ideas. His first book, `Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality,' is designed to do exactly what its title implies. Get your ideas to market now.

We've all heard that ideas are `a dime a dozen,' and `not worth the paper they are written on.' Belsky agrees. What the author is here to show us is that it's not about having ideas, but that the real challenge is executing on those ideas. Utilizing community, delegation based on ability and enthusiasm, avoidance of process, and 99% perspiration is a large part of the plan. Of course, deep down, we all know this, but Belsky's mission is to point out the traps and methods involved in cutting through both the institutional and psychological barriers that kill most ideas before they ever get off the ground.

Besides his own philosophies, Belsky has researched idea iteration across generations (from Thomas Edison to Seth Godin) to compile a list of approaches that fast-track ideas into the marketplace before they become stale (not in the mind of the market, but in the hands of those actually responsible for bring them to the market.) Belsky clearly abhors group thinking, committees and meetings that get bogged down and promote the notion of reporting rather than creating action plans (or capturing `Action Steps' as he calls them.) For Belsky, it's all about streamlining the actions needed to quickly ship ideas to the market without wasting time (on things like `Insecurity Work' and excessive consensus building.)

To assemble the book, Belsky explored what makes fast iterators work by examining methods at play in companies like Zappos, IDEO, Apple Computer and his own Behance. Companies that have become market leaders by turning the tradition of iteration on its ear.

In the final analysis, Belsky is about one thing and one thing only; taking good ideas and getting them to market - fast. His approach to streamlining marketing is the same approach he takes in his writing. Or as the famous Nike slogan says: `Just Do It!'

The joy of the book is in the actual implementation of the ideas presented in it. You could read it once and go back to it for reference time and again. If you want to know more about what is presented in the book, here is a primer: [...]
I would rather talk about who might benefit from the book:

1. If you are an independent creative professional and are constantly bogged down by new ideas, new projects and never seem to push anything to completion.

2. If you feel your work is, for the most part, disorganized and are constantly overwhelmed by distractions.

3. If you feel difficulty in or cannot fully communicate the value/benefit of your work to a larger audience or community.

4. A sense of disconnectedness with your peers.

This might be a great book for you. Just for a gentle nudge and to point you in the right direction. Go buy it and try to implement solutions around what you think are the most pressing and important problems in your area of execution. What you cannot expect though is an entire book devoted to brainstorming or creative doodling =)

In our daily work we meet very creative people. And. like the author found , many of these have trouble getting things started and completed. The book contains methods and approaches to help creative types get more "done" . But, the real value in this book is the depth of insight it brings to the wide range of creative people and how they cope with and succeed in life. It is not a hard facts book but rather a softer exploration of creativity, full of insightful case studies and examples. I read it in almost one sitting as it held my interest from page to page. A quiet easy read, it will be of value to anyone who is creative or works with creative people. visit [...]

I really wanted to like this book. I enjoy Behance.com, and I bought the hardcover of "Making Ideas Happen" hoping for big things.

The book is crammed with opaque jargon. It's almost unreadable, and unpleasant at best.

Many of the suggestions are suspect. For example, Belsky says nobody should take notes in meetings. Huh? That's a TERRIBLE idea. Note-taking has many valuable uses, from retaining information to helping one listen better and focus on the other person.

Overall not a great book. I'd happily sell my copy. It's just not helpful, in any way.

This sounds like a very academic and serious book and at times reading it is laborious.
But if one takes the effort to actually go through it, one will discover that there are gems littered everywhere inside.

As the title of the book suggests, the book focuses on making ideas happen - and it goes about it by addressing this both at the strategic and tactical level. Across every industry, there are some people who are consistently good at both generating and executing their ideas. This book captures how they do it. Its based on the premise that to ensure that ideas are pushed to fruition, its critical to organize life into a series of projects, managing these projects with a bias towards action with a focus on constant progress.

The book is divided into three sections, each presenting a critical set of tools to make ideas happen: Organization and Execution, the Forces of Community, and Leadership Capability. And clearly lot of research has gone behind this. The book is chock-a-bloc with interviews with people who have successfully developed and executed ideas. I particularly liked the chapters where prolific producers like Seth Godin, Michael Lewis and John Grisham shares their strategies and tactics on how they execute their ideas. Some of the rituals shared by them make for a fascinating read.

At the same time, the book is full of interesting insights on why we are not productive. As Seth says in the book-one needs to ship (or produce) consistently. But to do that one has to overcome some of the limitations of our minds. And the source of these is the lizard brain. Its tendencies are to keep us safe by avoiding danger and risk. It interferes with execution by amplifying our fears and thinking up excuses to play it safe. It becomes upset when we challenge the status quo. To quell this resistance, we must choose our projects wisely and then execute confidently. You need to commit to always shipping regardless of success or failure. For this you need to be comfortable with the risk of failure.

There are useful chapters on self marketing as well as self leadership as well. According to Scott, serial idea makers are focused on marketing themselves and their brands and that successful marketing is not something which is a one off campaign but is an ongoing aspect of brand development that comes from an authentic place. Rather than coming across as self promotional, the best marketing builds respect, which he terms as `respect based marketing'. People choose to follow you and your work because they respect you or something you have done.

Scott suggests that to be effective in self marketing, you have to identify your differentiating attributes and then build a storyline around how they serve as strengths. Based on this foundation, Scott advocates executing a communication strategy to engage with your constituents by sharing your thoughts on the articles you read, projects you are working on or the ideas you have. This will help you to build respect among your audience. For students of marketing, just this section is worth the price of this book.

When people want new ideas, what they are really saying is that they cant execute. What this book provides is an incredibly effective structure for the execution of stuff. Most of the books available in the market on the subject are full of fluff and generalities. So this book is like a breath of fresh air. It is filled with short and actionable tips and insights which can be put to use immediately. If you are looking for some solid research based insights on how to be lead a more productive and satisfying life, go and read this book.

-Maneesh Sah

Scott Belsky is clearly an observer - one who deduces conclusions based on the actions of those around him.

A few years ago, Napoleon Hill's classic handbook, Think and Grow Rich, Original 1937 Classic Edition, drastically changed my life. His approach to the subject matter of success was simple yet incredible. For many decades Hill observed some of the most successful individuals of the 20th century: Vanderbilt, Wilson, Schwab, etc. He concluded, through his observations of these men, that there is a set system each of man followed in order to build his success (measured not solely by economic standards, but also by quality of life, etc.). More specifically, Hill explained that there are specific qualities each man possessed that allowed for action to yield success.

Like Think and Grow Rich, the content within Making Ideas Happen is the product of careful observation. Scott Belsky has spent a number of years studying some of the most productive, efficient, and creative thinkers of our time. Based on his analysis, Belsky offers a clear blueprint not necessarily for financial success, but instead for productivity - an ingredient that is certainly necessary for any, if not all, forms of success. His advice aids the reader in the process of transitioning from scatter-brain to idea-executor - a difficult transition, but one that is based on maturity, discipline, and focus.

It's an easy read and full of inspiring advise. For anyone that struggles to focus on and execute the smaller details of making things happen, but who is not short on thinking of great ideas, this book is for you! Truly a great read!

"Making Ideas Happen" is not the first book of its kind - it's not the first one I've read, either. But it's a different one.

I remember telling a friend of mine "it's a nice book, but it's really just an updated version of David Allen's GTD (if you're not familiar with the term, just Google it)". The reason I said this is that, at the time, I saw the book as a mere attempt to market the Action Method (Bēhance's own GTD system), so I read it from a skeptical point of view. Well, I was wrong.

While GTD focuses on productivity in its broader sense, Scott Belsky's "Making Ideas Happen" is about execution - kind of a technical term, it refers to the work that follows idea generation.

Thomas Edison famously said that "Genius is only 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration". That's what this book is about: how to turn an idea into reality, when to do it and who it. It even goes as far so explain why you should do it (if you didn't have enough incentive yourself). And it doesn't take rabbits out of a hat, either: among the cases studies, Belsky illustrates the creative processes and teams behind companies like Disney, Google and Zappos.

To me, it's also a book that bridges a gap: while I've always appreciated the necessary synergy between creativity and organization, I've also had trouble putting it into practice. I saw organization more as pragmatism.

Scott Belsky has helped me see the term 'creative' in a way that previously eluded me. Any project that requires creative thinking or problem-solving is creative. And just as drawing or designing a website can be done mechanically, many projects that would appear to be out of the realm of 'creativity' have more to do with it than drawing pictures.

-- SCOTT BELSKY is the author of "Making Ideas Happen" and founder of Behance, Inc, one of the biggest and most important platforms for creative people and teams to showcase and discover creative work. Interestingly enough, before he founded Behance he worked at Goldman Sachs for five years. If you're interested on the reasons behind his transition, watch his interview on Business Insider: [...]

This text dissuades those who have a hard time truly focusing on those steps necessary to bring a project to fruition while both defining those habits that inhibit and replacing them with good suggestions/action steps. It further encourages the reader to reach out into a larger audience if seeking professional partnerships and/or available funding opportunities. Some may find the message(s) redundant and others will need to hear the repetition. IMHO, this text is well worth reading.

Most creative professionals have no problem coming up with ideas. In fact, too many ideas is more often the problem rather than too few. Where we usually run into issues, though, is in the follow-through. How do we take the brilliant ideas that we come up with on a daily basis and see them through to completed projects? That's exactly what the book Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky (the founder of Behance) aims to teach us. He's spent years studying the habits and methods of successful creatives who have a knack for following through on their great ideas and bringing them to fruition. He presents this information in a way that is both easy to understand and easy to implement.

The book starts out with an overview of how organization is often viewed by creative types as counter-productive to the creative process. Making Ideas Happen aims to disprove this theory, and to show why incorporating a bit of organization can go a long way toward following through with your ideas. From there, it digs into the practicalities of setting up an organizational system that works within your existing creative workflow. There's a definite slant toward using the Action Method (developed by Behance), but most of the principles discussed could be adapted to a custom productivity system. Taking action is stressed throughout the first part of the book. Action steps are touted as the key to managing and completing any creative project. And the author has plenty of research and anecdotal evidence to back up what he's saying. He's also big on developing and customizing your own system. The big idea touted throughout this section is to organize everything in your life and work into projects. These projects should each have action steps, backburner ideas, and reference items. By keeping everything in projects and assigning every action step you need to take to an individual project, it makes keeping everything organized and moving forward much easier.

In the chapter on prioritization, Belsky offers some excellent tips on managing your action steps so the most urgent work always gets done, but not at the expense of other important actions. Suggestions include learning to delegate, using a responsibility grid, and making a daily "focus area". One tip that might surprise many (included in the chapter titled Execution) is the advice to "Act Without Conviction". This runs contrary to what is often preached in all sorts of leadership and management classes and workshops. Considering the speed with which most creatives come up with ideas, the above advice and the section in which it appears should be carefully considered.

Other tips in the Execution chapter include being willing to kill ideas whenever necessary ("liberally" is the word used in the book) and to avoid meetings unless they result in measurable action. From there, Making Ideas Happen goes on to talk about leveraging community to help follow through on your ideas. Enlisting help from those around you can greatly increase your chances of finishing the projects you start. Belsky talks about the three types of people most of us are surrounded by: the Dreamers (those who focus more on the ideas), the Doers (those who are obsessed with executing ideas and following through on projects), and the Incrementalists (those who can do both). Many people strive to become Incrementalists, thinking this will be the key to finally finishing all those projects they start. But even being an Incrementalist has its drawbacks. With the ability to rapidly develop and then execute ideas, the Incrementalist finds him- or herself leading multiple projects (and, in many cases, multiple businesses) simultaneously. Being an incrementalist can lead to splitting your attention and focus between many, many different projects. While sometimes this can lead to success, it can just as often lead to feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.

Making Ideas Happen also suggests that you share ideas with others. The notion of "sharing ideas liberally" defies the natural instinct to keep your ideas a secret. Yet, among the hundreds of successful creatives I've interviewed, a fearless approach to sharing ideas is one of the most common attributes. Sharing ideas helps to foster community that will help make your ideas happen. If you can gather community support for your project, it's more likely you'll find the motivation to follow through. Other benefits of taking a community-based approach means you'll have others to turn to if you need feedback and to keep you accountable. Competition is also touted as a helpful means to keeping motivated and on-track with your projects. Competitors can keep us on our toes and make us less likely to give up. But seeking out competition can often be a scary thing for creatives (or anyone else, for that matter). The prospect of someone else competing and receiving fanfare for an idea that you had first is outright painful...One might argue that our ideas are an extension of who we are and who we hope to become. This is why competition taps into something almost primal, the Darwinian struggle for survival. In other words, competition can be incredibly motivational. Even if the competition is friendly, it can still serve as a catalyst for pushing you forward.

The final section in the book deals with leadership capabilities. One key to being a successful creative professional is being able to lead teams of others. Learning to become a good leader isn't something that's often covered in design school. But becoming a good leader isn't rocket science. Fostering a good team can lead to a high level of support for developing new ideas and seeing them through. Good team chemistry can also lead to recognizing bad ideas more quickly and ceasing to work on them. Ideally, you want some team members who are good at poking holes in your ideas and showing you where the weaknesses are.

An entire chapter is devoted to managing creative teams. Methods for managing these teams include things like sharing ownership on your ideas. It can be difficult, though, for many leaders to give up enough control in their ideas that their team members actually feel a sense of ownership on these ideas. Ownership is important, though, because team members who feel they have a stake in these ideas will put more effort into their development. One way to give a sense of ownership to your team is to get them excited about your idea. Getting people excited about your idea, however, is just the first phase of sharing ownership. The second and much more challenging part is empowering team members to push the idea forward rather than micromanaging them every step of the way.

The final chapter might be one of the most useful to many creatives. It deals with managing yourself, arguably the hardest person of all to effectively manage. Most creative leaders can trace their greatest obstacles to something personal--fear, insecurity, or self-imposed limitation. Having an entire chapter devoted to managing and overcoming these obstacles is going to be incredibly valuable to a large number of creatives. I'm sure that most creative pros out there find that internal struggles are the hardest things to overcome in the creative process if they really think about it.

Making Ideas Happen is an excellent resource for those of us who have no shortage of ideas but often have a hard time seeing those ideas through to completion. It offers specific, actionable information on how to manage yourself and your team to achieve measurable results and create successful projects.

Reviewed by Cameron Chapman from [..]

According to the author, Scott Belsky, the ability to execute ideas can be developed by anyone willing to build their organizational habits and harness the forces of community. That's why he founded his company, which helps creative people and teams develop these skills.

He spent six years studying the habits of highly productive creative people --- people who work with ideas, come up with them and execute them.

After he interviewed hundreds of successful creative people he put together their best and worst practices. Here are a few . . .

- Generate ideas in moderation and act without conviction
- Reduce all projects to just three primary components
- Encourage fighting within your team
- Seek competition and share ideas liberally

In my profession, advertising copywriter, I find that in my own case, coming up with the ideas is the hard part. Executing them is easy. But many in my profession have the opposite problem. They quickly come up with great ideas but fail to execute them so they are useful.

I heard of someone who had great ideas. Trouble was, she never did a thing with those ideas. Someone else often took her ideas and actually executed them. The person with the great ideas remained poor. The person who executed the ideas made money. Another man took the great ideas of others and made millions. Having brilliant ideas is a wonderful thing. But it's the person who executes the idea, brings it to life, gives it birth, who becomes successful. So the key is to come up with ideas but then take it to the next level and execute those ideas.

That's what this book is all about.

Highly recommended.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

Everyone needs to read this book. Whether you are a creative individual, part of a creative team, or someone who just wants to be more organized, this book will provide you with tips and tools to get you there. I'm not saying that if you read this book you will magically be transformed into the epitome of efficiency, but there are concepts and steps in this book that will help guide you toward turning ideas or goals into reality.

Making Ideas Happen is a readable compendium of many years of research and observation and it shows. This book is nearly a decade worth of observations of companies like IDEO, Apple, Brooklyn Bros., Walker Digital, Google, Disney and many more. Scott immersed himself in their process. Not asking questions about their ideation process, but about the less-sexy aspect of execution. Some of these companies are able to walk a fine line, balancing ideation with execution and embody the counterintuitive practices such as: generating ideas in moderation or acting without conviction to keep momentum and rapidly refine ideas. Scott emphasizes the value of community and the idea that "circles" help give value to an idea. He also goes into depth about the idea that of incorporating these ideas organically into your own process. Take the time to walk these steps into your own process because habit breeds loyalty.

This book may be hard for some to swallow. Many out there thrive on the creative chaos, that lone creative genius, and may turn their noses up at adding any sort of structure that this book suggests, but this structure, these steps are not about stifling creativity, they're about taking action. You can have a plethora of ideas floating around in that creative ether, but if you can't organize those ideas in such a way that will allow you to put pen to paper and move those ideas closer to reality, then those ideas are worthless.

Making Ideas Happen is more of a reference guide than a how-to book. Everyone's has their own organic process that may shift and change depending on the project. I have already begun breaking down projects into the three categories of Action Steps, References, and Backburner Ideas. It has allowed me to begin the process of organizing and prioritizing which in turn saves me time and energy. Taking these steps in little bits and pieces, as opposed to a prescribed method, is the intention of Making Ideas Happen. Some of it may be vague at times, but when you start applying the concepts to your own projects and workflow, you begin to understand the power of this book.

If you're a designer you probably have good ideas. Lots of them. All the time. But how many of them become reality? Scott Belsky--founder of the Behance Network--understands the trouble many creative people have in getting organized, getting support, and pushing through when new ideas distract. Sure Belsky's program is tied to a subscription online tool and pricey notebooks. But even without those products, by following his advice and creating your own system you can finally move those great ideas from concept through to completion.

Execution of ideas is where the money is made and Belsky outlines a great game plan for people who need to make their ideas happen. It's almost cliche, but creative folks have little trouble being creative and lots of trouble implementing. Everyone in business lives and dies by the ideas they can successfully bring to life and this is the first book I've encountered that lays out a proven way to get it done.

John Jantsch, author of The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

Scott Belsky's first book Making Ideas Happen is a good start for him. It shows he took his own advice and has accomplished a lot and should be commended. I can see a lot of creatives getting something out of it. I've read tons of self-development books, so nothing in this book feels new or original. I can still half-heartedly recommend this to creatives and knowledge workers who are really not into reading many books on productivity will probably get something out it. Anyone else should pass. Even though the book dabbles on many subjects, I just wish he had explored the topics further without sounding so redundant at times. It felt like Belsky had tons to say, but never took command of the subject matter.

Hopefully, Scott Belsky's future books have a more polished feel with less plugs and more inventive ideas. Not to discredit the other reviews online, but many have written up reviews after reading the first few pages, which has led to impulsive reactions. This book does deliver on ideas for improved productivity -- too bad they aren't new or original ideas.

Full review: [...]

A friend gave me this book... and I was intrigued at first. But like other reviewers noted, the author spends a lot of time pitching his product called the Action Method. It seems that the author has a vision of creativity that lacks depth or a certain sensitivity. Being organized is not enough to produce great creative ideas. This book could be better.

A truly excellent book filled with outstanding anecdotes and highly-useful information for turning thoughts into reality in the workplace and marketplace. Very readable and real-world. I highly recommend it.

Well Structured, Well Organized, with many practicale examples. For years and years I have been having Creative Ideas that did not see the Light. In this book, I found the answers.

Many thanks for the Author, Great Job

Very will articulated, simple to understand, easy to implement. The Author responded personally to me about some concerns I had. This is more than a gaming changing book. This book will transform your world into the world of Action.