IT ONLY TAKES ONE
How To Create The Right Idea—And Then Make It Happen

"A lively and informative account of the creative process and how it works by someone who obviously knows. Emmerling has produced a splendid handbook on an absorbing topic."
— George Plimpton, The Paris Review

" Ideas—original, salable, stimulating, amusing ideas—seem simply to pour out of John Emmerling’s head. He has captured the essence of how he works in this book, and you don't need a Harvard MBA to benefit from it."
— Gael Greene, Contributing Editor, New York magazine

Bill Gates
While preparing to write this book in 1990, John Emmerling interviewed Bill Gates in Redmond, Washington. The subject of the interview: "What Does Bill Gates Do To Spur Innovation and Creativity At Microsoft?"
Read the interview here.

Book summary by publisher, Simon & Schuster
“This lively, inspiring, and invaluable book shows you exactly how to create innovative ideas and then put them into action successfully with measurable results—for you, your career, and your company.

John Emmerling earns his living by generating ideas. In IT ONLY TAKES ONE, he guides you step by step through his simple, proven, six-step process for generating your own ideas and putting them to work. This process, called S.T.R.I.K.E., will start you thinking, give you a clear direction for your thoughts, help you develop an information base, demonstrate a visually oriented way to generate ideas, and finally encourage you to beat the drums, toot your horn, and actually make your new idea happen. According to Emmerling, there is simply no experience on earth more exciting than having an idea—and then making that idea happen.”

SAMPLE CHAPTERS (PDF document)

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