INTRODUCTION

Many people believe that if they continue doing their job quietly and
work hard, they will be eventually recognised on the merits of their work. Yet
that is no longer true. On the other hand, too many of us shrink back when it
comes to finding and sharing our ideas to the world. There are a lot of worries
and assumptions that hold us down simply because we think we are not like
those recognised leaders or experts who have unique insight and talent. This is
also no longer true anymore.

Dorie Clark justifies that becoming a thought leader is actually a skill that
anyone, with hard work, can practice and learn. Simply put, everyone can
become a thought leader in their respective field as long as they work hard on it.
Drawing on interviews with more than fifty thought leaders from various fields,
Clark has shown us how anyone with hard work, can achieve success like all
those masters.

By hard work it means you need to be willing to share yourself and your
ideas if you expect to advance in your field, no matter how frustratingly slow
the process may be. You need to be brave to get out of your desk and make sure
your ideas stand out in the crowd. You need to outpace your competitors in
which most of whom never even try to become a thought leader.

Furthermore, in becoming a thought leader, one must not only be known

for his/her breakthrough ideas, but also have followers. Being an expert is great
but it is not sufficient to make one a leader. A thought leader strives to make an
impact, like the imperative put forward by Steve Jobs, to put a dent in the
universe. The impact you created will help you build audience and inspire
others to embrace your vision, and in turn you will develop your very own
followers. These followers will then ensure the ideas and messages you want to
bring forward are more accessible and actionable to the rest of the community.
This, according to Clark, is how you can expand and build a strong professional
reputation, and very quickly, become recognised by the people or even the
world.

CHAPTER 1 THE BIG IDEA

Clark begins this section by saying Your voice deserves to be heard. It

is a powerful belief that many are still struggling with. Yet, it is true. In finding
your very own Big Idea, you need to shift your mindset from the one that is
questioning you to a questioning mindset. Stop questioning your ability but
begin questioning what you can do to make your idea a breakthrough idea.

Fortunately, you do not have to be a genius to have Big Ideas. It is the

ability to ask good questions, challenge assumptions, and to trust your instinct
to follow what the rest of the world has overlooked. To find your Big Idea,
Clark says you can draw on your life and experiences. It is these unexpected
elements of your personal experiences and backgrounds that make your
perspective unique and different from everyone else. She also added that one
does not succeed by following and thinking like others. One needs to challenge
the basic assumptions by questioning what other ways can be done that
compliment the age that we are in today, and no longer subject to how things
have always been done.

The process of finding Big Ideas is undoubtedly going to be a

rollercoaster ride and time-consuming. Yet, seeing the realisation of your Big
Ideas at the end of the day is going to be worth all the emotion, effort, and time
spent.
CHAPTER 2 DEVELOP YOUR EXPERT NICHE

After finding your Big Ideas, this chapter helps one to discover their
specialised niche which one want to own, distinguishing oneself from other
recognised leaders in the field. It also helps one to develop necessary skills and
finaly expand the reputation so one can ultimately expand steadily into other
related fields, beyond his/her initial speciality.

In developing a niche, it is better to narrowcast, says Clark, focusing

only on a particular segment of your field that has been overlooked by many.
You need to experiment and trying out a variety of ways to know which one
works best and interest people. When you have well established yourself there,
it is likely to be easy for you to expand your influence to the other realms.
Focusing on only a certain segment to expertise in helps you make your
coverage deeper than anyone else in your field. This will make yourself to be
easily recognisable for your Big Ideas.

Regardless of what your idea is, the key to finding your expert niche is to
just start. Once you begin to focus on a segment for you to expertise in, you will
be amazed to see where the journey will take you next.

CHAPTER 3 PROVIDE NEW RESEARCH

The third chapter emphasises the importance of making research once

you have develop your expert niche. It discusses alternatives on how to conduct
small-scale yet valuable research and finally make sure your hard work gets
recognised and acknowledged.

A valuable, on-the-ground research is necessary because a new research

with accurate and revealing data enables you to very quickly become a reliable,
and most importantly, sought-after source. This is especially true in this age
where people are hungry for actual data. When your research has dug up
deeper thought on your specialised niche in your field and you have done the
work that many have not, people will likely to be grateful to you for doing the
work for them, thus recognise your superior expertise.

Many believe that providing a new research can be costly and time-
consuming, especially when most people struggle to juggle working life and
finding the time to conduct a research. Yet, Clark shows how people like
Michael Waxenberg, Tom Peters and Bob Waterman, and Mark Fidelman, have
successfully advanced through their valuable researches which are done full-
time yet do double duty by integrating the research into your professional life.

Done right, research can both educate you about a given industry and
put you in contact with the most influential people in it. That way, its an
investment in professional development and network building, so you
can afford to spend more time on it.

CHAPTER 4 COMBINE IDEAS

In this chapter, Dorie Clark justifies her statement of when you have
developed an expert niche in a particular area of your field, you are likely to
expand to the other adjacent fields. This is because, part of becoming a
thought leader is the capability to see problems in a new way often by
combining disparate elements that initially seem unrelated. Clark shows
how Eric Schadt, who began his career as a Mathematician, studied
computer science as an undergraduate, and later worked at a pharmaceutical
company nearing the completion of his doctorate, realises this theory when
he introduces what he terms as the new biology.
 It shows how your previous experiences, past training, hobbies, innate
skills, or your upbringing are the factors that affect on how you see the
world. These are the disparate elements that will help you to combine your
ideas, allows you to ask questions, or make connections so you can have
deeper thought on your Big Ideas and expand it to other related fields. The
concept of combining and expanding your ideas also shows how by doing
something different than the rest provides you a greater chance of making
your impact long-lasting.

CHAPTER 5 CREATE A FRAMEWORK

The final stage of finding your breakthrough ideas is creating a

framework which shows that you have made an important contribution.
Having a framework which can help others to have a new, clearer view to
the world can help you more in making a significant impact in your career.
Just like Maslow who came up with the hierarchy of needs. Everyone knows
that food and water are necessary, yet just knowing is not sufficient for ones
to sustain and understand how they can achieve a happy life. What Maslow
did was giving a clear structure in a form of a pyramid that shows the layers
of human physiological needs whereby once each layer is fulfilled, people
can concentrate on the following levels of necessities, from safety to love to
esteem and finally to self-actualisation.

Even so, not everyone strive to have their very own framework as it is
more time and effort consuming than having research. However, what Clark
wants to imply here is that, having a practical framework which inspires
others makes your impact as a thought leader more lasting. A framework
helps people to think about and understand your breakthrough ideas more,
thus making a long-term impact in the heart of the people.
CHAPTER 6 BUILD YOUR NETWORK

I love the notion brought forward by Clark when she introduces the
second part of this book which reads You could have the best idea in the
world but it wont have much impact if no ones ever heard of it. It signifies
the importance of putting up the courage to put yourself in the crowd so
others will notice you and your breakthrough ideas. Clark outlines a 3-step
process in building your network that will form the foundation of the
movement of your Big Ideas. The 3-step process is one-to-one, one-to-many,
and finally many-to-many.

The first step is starting with people we already know and who believe
in us such as family and friends. The idea is that, since these people are close
to us, they are willing to help spread your idea out. Getting started is as
simple as talking with them about your idea to get their feedback on your
idea. Clark also suggests, though critical, to build network outside family
and friends. She provides examples of how some common people leverage
and grow their networks as they further developed their ideas. This will
eventually prepare you to bring out your idea to a larger audience which is
the second step.

CHAPTER 7 BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE

In the second step, which is one-to-many, a lot of people struggle in

executing it. This is typically because you are now introducing your new
ideas outside your safe zone. To overcome the struggle, Clark suggests
two best ways to build a larger audience which is through Social Media and
Blogging. She also suggests another great option that is to write a book. This
will widen your scope of audience, attracting more like-minded followers,
and hence making yourself and your ideas easily accessible to a wider
network.
CHAPTER 8 BUILD A COMMUNITY

The final step is many-to-many where one will need to be a connector.

She says that one of the best gifts you can give is to connect people who
can benefit from each other. Again, here you can use the Internet as the
medium to create tribes and places for people who can benefit each other to
connect in a larger scale.

The idea is that, when more audience are connected through groups
and forums, they will spread the Big Ideas to their own network, thus many
people will begin to care about your idea, ...connect around it, become
evangelists, and exponentially increase the likelihood that it will take root
more broadly in the culture.

All these idea of building your network may seem daunting yet,
Clarks wants us to remember that you are not alone in going through this
whole process. No one is an island. That is why you need your network,
your audience and you very own community to strengthen your courage and
trust as they support and help you refine your Big Ideas.

CHAPTER 9 PUTTING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INTO PRACTICE

Throughout the book, Dorie Clark has brought us on the journey of

discovering and developing Big Ideas and building a follower and
community around it. The final part of the book discusses ways that a
thought-leader-to-be can take to put all those into practice. From making the
time, carving out mental space necessary to find Big Ideas and begin sharing
them with others, to monetization making a living, and the amount of hard
work it takes to succeed.
 She gives examples of how a number of most successful rising starts
have done to break through and stand out. Although none of them is easy,
she promises that it is still possible for other people like you and me, as she
puts it earlier in the book, your goals are possible, as long as it is driven
with hard work and passion.