Ideas come to life in many different ways. Stories are the primary method. Visually, magazines give us images of ideas, especially for rooms in houses and so on. Ikea built their entire store model around ‘walk in magazines’ setting up the top floor of their stores with rooms on display. Websites and apps do this for us as well – some even allow you to upload photos of yourself to change your hairstyle or photos of you room or garden to change the design.

These are powerful tools as they help others see your idea but also the possibility. Few of us walk out of Ikea having bought one of the rooms on display. But many of us have been inspired by something we saw.

Stories of change do this too. Or in reality, stories of someone else doing something different than we are. We rarely can implement the same project or idea of someone else, but we can be inspired by it and act on that inspiration in our context. This is the power of ideas and stories. But it is also the power of networks and connections.

Find the others is one thing, sharing with them and listening to their stories is the important part.

The choice is up to us.

Photo by CJ Dayrit