New ideas, like seedlings, grow and flourish with attention. New ideas are precious.

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands,” said the great artist Michelangelo.

Every idea begins as a flicker of truth—a quiet flame in the soul. Protect it. Nurture it. Let it glow.

Sometimes our internal voice of reason—or the judgment of others—can destroy a new idea before it has a chance to bloom. But sometimes doubts give birth to even greater ideas.

Consider inventor Gary Dahl who came up with the idea for a Pet Rock, then took the idea a step further by writing a book with instructions on how to care for the Pet Rock.

Or think of 3M employee Art Fry, who sang in a choir and used bits of paper to mark notations in his hymns. He made an adhesive backing to keep the notes from falling out. That’s how Post-It Notes were born.

Both innovations were called ludicrous... at first.

“A man with a new idea is a crank,” observed Mark Twain, “until the idea succeeds.”