How to Turn Ideas Into Reality (eBook)

Turning ideas into reality is one of the greatest joys in life. This joy comes from the act of creation and the relief from problems. Both paths start with a thought, which is brought to life by action, and conclude with a bit of change in the world. This is a laborious kind of joy because the pathway from idea to reality is work.

Sometimes this work is the daily practice of our craft. Other times ideas ask more from us: in order to manifest them in the world, we need to pull together varied types of work, possibly from many individuals, and bring them to harmony.

This orchestration of work is the age-old practice of project management.

How to Turn Ideas Into Reality presents a "minimum effective dose" of project management tools for entrepreneurs and self-employed creators: enough to help us orchestrate work but not too much that it distracts us from our actual job of building the business or practicing our craft.

Since this book is written for entrepreneurs and independent creators, it includes chapters not found in most project management books. For instance, Chapter 5: Cultivating Serendipity. Unlike full-time project managers, we have the power to start, end or change our projects at any time. This gives us the freedom to pivot toward unexpected good fortune. How do we increase our chances of getting lucky? How can we be more ready to pursue good fortune? In this chapter, I share the serendipity playbook I have compiled over the years.

A concern I frequently hear from people I train is how to persevere in their projects. In Chapter 9, I share tools for managing motivation. In Chapter 10, I share my journey from “wartime productivity” to “peacetime productivity.” The key to more creative and impactful projects is not to become a productivity robot. It is to understand and embrace our humanity.

- Kahlil Corazo

Table of Contents

• 1. Project Management to Support Freedom, Entrepreneurship, and Creative Work
• 2. A Map of This Book
• 3. Orchestrate Work
• 4. Prevent Failure
• 5. Cultivate Serendipity
• 6. Clarify Your Vision, Purpose, and Pathway
• 7. Communicate
• 8. Focus Across Time
• 9. Lead Your Team (Including Yourself)
• 10. From Wartime to Peacetime Productivity
• Bonus chapter: The Charioteer System (Productivity for Rebels)
• Acknowledgments (The Making of This Book as a Case Study of Cultivating Serendipity)

Gumroad Exclusive: The Excised Appendices

• Appendix I. Software for the Thinking Part of Project Management
• Appendix II. Ways of Ideating and Choosing Projects
• Appendix III: What I Left Out in This Book
• Appendix IV: Project Management (Meta) Planning
• Appendix V: "Take Action" Prompts

Notes of Appreciation Throughout the Making of This Book

• This looks very promising. Loaded it into a local graph & Impressed by the content. - @TfTHacker on the prototype of Chapter 4: Prevent Failure
• I love the Stallion and Rider approach! I text people about it so much I created a text shortcut called 'stallionrider', which then pops in the description of the technique. It has really helped me. Especially when my stallion rebels, but is willing to work on something else. - Alexander Lundy on the Twitter thread that became Chapter 10: From Wartime to Peacetime Productivity
• A really powerful model, thanks for sharing - Markus Hafellner on the same thread
• LOVE THIS THREAD - Anthony Baker on the Twitter thread that became Chapter 5: Cultivate Serendipity
• I love this Kahlil! - Chiel Muur on the same thread
• Nice! I really enjoyed your work on the "Professional Project Management" r/book. Not an entrepreneur myself but curious about the perspective you will bring in this new one. - @mvolpato_ on the prototype of this book
• I have been following @kcorazo for a long time, and been really excited about his book. I just started reading, and it looks great really clearly explained, and appropriate whether you are renovating or starting a world-changing NGO... - Stian Häklev
• @kcorazo's new book, which had the privilege to edit is an innovative and insightful guide to project management. Some of the new areas it covers are how to encourage serendipity, the importance of maintaining enough slack and the effective management of internal motivations. - Francis Miller
• As one of your beta readers, I highly recommend your book due to its "minimum effective dose" approach. Why? Most of us have too much on the plate for a highly sophisticated and thus overly time-consuming project management. We need an effective hands on way of doing it. Much of what you recommend in your book today is part of how manage my projects as a small business owner. - Günther Lehner