What Do You Do with An Idea?

September 9, 2024. This blog will be shorter than any blog, but there’s a reason. I’m headed to Florence for two weeks with a good friend to revisit a city we both traveled to a few years ago for reasons neither of us have verbalized or thought through other than we love the city and hope to discover new insights, new appreciations, new discoveries about ourselves and the world that has changed so much since we last visited.

The adventure awaits.

First, a few thoughts about my latest trip to our local bookstore to find a book for my granddaughter’s seventh birthday. What transpired didn’t unfold like I thought.

A bookstore isn’t usually a place where the buyer has a clear purpose (buy a book) and then leaves thinking new thoughts that have nothing to do with a birthday or what would be the best gift for the intended recipient. Suddenly and without warning – an idea hit home. That’s right. An idea.

One book caught my eye. Its title: What Do You Do With An Idea? written by Kobi Yamada and illustrated by Mae Besom stopped me. The book’s idea pulled me in.

I asked myself – why? Why would a kid’s book written by the President of a company “of amazing people doing amazing things,” who considers himself to be “the luckiest person on the planet” consider a book that wasn’t for my granddaughter.

I found a chair and turned to the book description.

The author wrote “This is for anyone, at any age, who’s ever had an idea that seemed a little too big, too odd, too difficult. Especially an idea that’s different, or daring, or just a little wild. It’s a story to inspire you to welcome an idea, to give it some space to grow, and to see what happens next. Because your idea isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s just getting started.”

Then I remembered another idea that seemed a little too big, too odd, too difficult.

Only this idea happened to the two scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine for their work on RNA: Biochemist Katlin Kariko and her colleague Drew Weissman who were awarded 3 million for their work which led to the COVID vaccine that led to the vaccine that had protected billions of people.

The remarkable story about the beginning of the COVID vaccine happened in 1998 during a casual conversation while the two scientists met over a photocopier reviewing science journals and discovered they were both experimenting with novel methods to create vaccines.

I tried to imagine the scene: two brilliant scientists both working on a similar project just happened to meet over a photocopier and while discussing their similar interests that led to a collaboration that laid down the foundation for the timely idea of the Pfizer-BioNT and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. What if they hadn’t met over that photocopy machine?

I bought Kobi Yamada’s book, turned to the first page and read: “One day I had an idea. “Where did it come from? Why is it here? I wondered. What do you do with an idea?” He answered it on the last page. “You can change the world.

“You can change the world.”