Most good ideas never see the light of day, according to Scott Belsky, founder of Behance network and author of Making Ideas Happen. Belsky’s formula for making ideas happen is:

IDEA + ORGANIZATION + COMMUNITY + LEADERSHIP

Creative people need more than good ideas. They also need organizational skills, a supportive community, and strong leadership to turn their ideas into finished worked. Many people are secretive about their ideas. This is unnecessary, according to Belsky. Good ideas are plentiful; it’s the successful implementation of ideas that is difficult. A community provides a creative person with feedback needed to refine and test ideas, a network of people with complementary skills, and introductions to potential customers.

Leadership is important because innovation happens in teams. (See Scott Berkun’s The Myths of Innovation for evidence against the myth of the lone inventor.) Empowering others to make decisions that will affect the fate of the project can be scary, but it is ultimately the best way to see your ideas turned into reality.