Your First Good Idea Is Not Your Best Work.
The obvious answer may be competent. But distinction lives several layers deeper—and accomplished women cannot afford to stop at competent.
Early in my career, after undergrad, I enrolled at The Portfolio Center in Atlanta—one of the nation’s premier advertising schools. Students came from around the world to build portfolios in copywriting, photography, graphic design, and art direction that could open doors at leading advertising and design firms.
The experience changed me. It introduced me to creativity at a level I had never encountered. I learned how unconventional thinking, cultural awareness, and rigorous craft could force people to stop, look, and remember.
One of the school’s signature traditions was its Thursday night speaker series. The most exciting creative leaders in the industry would come talk with a room full of eager students about how exceptional work was actually made.
One evening, legendary copywriter Luke Sullivan described the discipline behind his award-winning ideas. He said he would force himself to write at least one hundred headlines—far more than most writers would attempt. Every angle, tone, phrasing, and possibility went onto a yellow legal pad.
Then, when he reached the final line, he would tear it up and begin again. His first hundred ideas meant he was only scratching the surface.
The first idea proves you can answer the assignment. The deeper idea proves you can change the conversation.
I have carried that lesson with me for years. How often do we settle for the first smart idea, acceptable plan, polished phrase, or familiar strategy that comes to mind? How often do we stop when the work is good enough to be approved instead of pushing until it is strong enough to be remembered?
In a world of instant answers, judgment is the premium.
Today, anyone can generate a list of ideas in seconds. Technology can accelerate a first draft, summarize the obvious, and give us a perfectly respectable place to begin. That makes the discipline Luke taught even more valuable—not less.
Your advantage is not simply producing more options. It is knowing which idea carries your experience, point of view, and strategic judgment. The work that becomes associated with your name should reveal something a generic answer cannot.
If you are building visibility, positioning yourself for a bigger role, developing a keynote, or making the case for your next opportunity, the obvious message will make you blend in. Distinction requires depth.
Five ways to get beneath the obvious
Write the expected answer first
Get the clichés, familiar language, and safe ideas out of your head and onto the page.
Change the lens
Consider the problem through the eyes of the audience, decision-maker, skeptic, customer, or person most affected.
Interrogate your experience
Ask what you know because you have lived it, led it, repaired it, or witnessed it up close.
Push the consequence
What becomes possible if the idea works—and what does inaction actually cost?
Test for memorability
Can someone repeat the idea tomorrow? If not, simplify the language without shrinking the thinking.
Try the 20-Beyond-Obvious challenge.
- Choose one message you need to communicate: a headline, presentation title, positioning statement, offer, or recommendation.
- Write twenty possibilities without editing yourself. Expect the first ten to sound familiar.
- For the next five, change the emotional tone: urgent, generous, provocative, surprising, or direct.
- For the final five, use only insights drawn from your lived experience or earned expertise.
- Circle the three that feel both true to you and useful to your audience. Test them with someone whose judgment you trust.
Your reputation is shaped by the standard you accept.
Giving it your all is not about endless perfectionism. It is about refusing to confuse speed with substance or polish with originality. Push far enough to find the thought that only you could bring.
Pull out the legal pad. The idea that changes the game may be waiting just beyond the first one that works.
Is your expertise unmistakable—or merely acceptable?
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