You never know when or where the creative process will strike. It could be in the middle of the night; it could be at the beach. Much has been written about some of the great entrepreneurs and their use of whatever means necessary to jot down that all-important design or idea. It seems as though my brain is always working overtime on some crazy idea or another.

When I was just a kid, I got it in my head that I could design and build a hovercraft. It seems funny now, particularly every time I see that Orbitz commercial with the guy trying to valet park his Orbitz hovercraft. But where most people get a passing thought and say, “That would be cool,” I’ve always had the need to write things down. I wish I had saved the drawings that I spent hours and hours working on for that hovercraft…I can still picture the schematics, such as they were, and my feeble attempts to try to figure out things like propulsion and directional controls.

These days, with so many things to work on and so many daily responsibilities, it can be hard to let your mind wander a bit and think about new things. We referenced an article a couple of weeks ago about the traits of innovation . What I figured out about myself is that my strongest innovation traits are Networking and Association. In fact, I think that they feed off of each other to some degree, which leads us to the need for cocktail napkins.

I am a networker. I like people and I like talking to them about who they are, what they do and their experiences. It was a partner of mine at Deloitte, John Moulton, who was the first to introduce me to the question, “What keeps you up at night?” and, in turn, I have asked it to colleagues, business leaders and friends hundreds of times since then. In asking such an open-ended question, you gain a lot of insight on what the real problems are that are troubling people, particularly as they relate to business. So, you ask hundreds of people what keeps them up, you are bound to see trends and sometimes there is that lightning bolt moment that you say, “This seems to be a real and pervasive problem. Using what I have learned here, here and there, why don’t we build something to solve this problem.” And that is how it happens…or at least, that is how it has happened for me.  And normally at a restaurant or bar where the conversations like these occur.

I’m not a rocket scientist (or as De Ann likes to joke, I’m not a rocket surgeon). But I have been successful at boiling down problems to their root causes and helping people figure out how to address those causes. You never know when inspiration is going to come. I keep a notepad on the nightstand for when I wake up with some unexpected clarity on a problem that has been bothering me. I often grab that same pad when I step out of the shower, where I think about my day and the challenges I’m faced and come up with some solutions. And after one long night at the tavern, coming home with cocktail napkins and register tape with notes and questions and possibilities (another cocktail napkin manifesto), I started carrying around a small notebook (about the size of a business card) and a pen.

So, the next time that someone asks you for a napkin with a crazed look in his or her eyes muttering something about the size of fan blades or lift needed to carry a family of four, go ahead and give it to them. You never know, they just might come up with the design for the next big thing. And if you can’t find a napkin, just ask me and perhaps I will let you borrow my notepad and pen. I have them right here. Oh, that reminds me, I need to make a note…