The Lifecycle of an Idea.
Spark. Fuel. Oxygen. Heat. Fire. Starter. Stoker. Arsonist. Gaslighter.
On November 3, I went to The 3% Movement Conference in New York.
It was my first work trip after having my first baby.
It was my first day without pumping or breastfeeding in 197 days.
It was my first time alone since becoming a mother.
I had no idea how the question on this notebook — and the events that transpired later that week — would change my life forever.
After I wrote – and shared – my “open letter” in November of 2106, momentum built.
The message behind my letter became a mission.
And four months later, on International Women’s Day, we launched it into the world.
The thing about ideas, and the people who have them, is that they go one of two ways:
Nowhere. An idea without action, without grit, without determination, is just a thought. It’s a bubble that travels into the ether, eventually popping and leaving nothing but a faint memory behind.
Somewhere. If an idea is fire, action is the oxygen by which it lives or dies. Those who breathe oxygen – life – into an idea take it, launch it, nurture it, grow it. It’s work. It requires attention. It’s takes iterating. Without that, the fire goes out.
Power plays a critical role in the life of an idea. And I've experienced that joy and devastation.
Idea people, without doers to *do* their bidding, have hundreds of ideas that never see the light of day.
Doers, on the other had, have ideas that you’ve actually experienced.
I operationalized our mission and made it real. And five months after birthing it into the world, I birthed my second child. Both experiences were critical to the direction my life would take less than a year later.
And so, here we are: the story very few know; the “origin” story I was never allowed to publicly tell.
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