When John F. Kennedy promised that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, the idea literally took off. When Martin Luther King Jr. painted a picture of his dream, he refocused and redirected the civil rights movement. Both of these ideas had been around forever. The promise and the picture ignited the passions of millions of people.
Every idea begins with a spark of inspiration.
That spark is always created by the friction of a desire rubbing up against a barrier. We come equipped with a load of desires. When our desires are easily satisfied, they burn themselves out. There's no longer a need for passion. So we move up our hierarchy of needs to until we find another barrier.