The hardest part about beginning a startup company is coming up with an idea that not only fills an important void, but that no one else has already come upRead More
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]]>The hardest part about beginning a startup company is coming up with an idea that not only fills an important void, but that no one else has already come up with. It is exceedingly likely that the first idea you come up with will not be a success. As such, it is imperative to not let yourself become discouraged by initial disappointments and to keep on pushing.
These popular techniques will go a long way towards helping you create new business ideas:
The entrepreneur who successfully creates a new business and can withstand the test of time is the one who is able to peer into their crystal ball and predict the trends of the future. While this process does require just a smidgen of good luck, a great entrepreneur knows that luck is merely the residue of skill and hard work. Luck does not come to those who park themselves on the couch and wait for it to come along, it happens to those who get up, get out there and work for it.
A top notch idea for a business is one that is ahead of the curve and anticipates changes in the landscape. The person who is monitoring current trends instead of future trends is going to come up with ideas that are instantly outdated. A decent entrepreneur looks at what is going on now and thinks of a way to fit in with the current landscape.
On the other hand, a great entrepreneur thinks about the future and wonders how they can create the next big thing, rather than an inferior knockoff version of the current big thing. Monitoring the current trends in the business world can provide some help when it comes to developing new ideas, but you have to consider the amount of time it takes to start a new business.
An idea that seems fresh in the moment is often past its sell by date when you are finally able to get down to brass tacks and start the process of opening a business. Consider the future and what place your product will hold in that future.
I am willing to bet that there are many things in your everyday life that drive you crazy. One of my personal favorite ways to create new business ideas is by taking the time to consider the things about life that annoy you the most. If you hone in on the things that “piss you off,” you will be able to brainstorm real solutions to everyday problems. If you are are the type of person that feels like you have to “do things on your own,” this task brainstorming technique will come naturally to you. As I’ve come to learn from many authors on innovation, the best entrepreneurs are those who find out about what we lack most and discover a new way to provide the public with the needed item.
Invention is not a must in these scenarios, but it can help you to develop new ideas. Brainstorming about products that every human being would want, but have yet to be created is a great way to amplify the creative process and ensure that you remain ahead of the curve at all times.
Speak to people you know, as well. There are many instances where the things that annoy you and frustrate you will also annoy and frustrate them. Canvasing close friends and family can also provide you with important information about frustrations that they are having that you had failed to consider.
Consult with members of the opposite sex and ask them about their daily frustrations. A company that is able to consider a variety of concerns from various walks of life is one that will prosper in the long term. Having a narrow focus leads to a lack of creativity and should be avoided.
Most people prefer to avoid frustrating moments at all costs, but those who can train their mind to look deeper can find valuable business ideas that no one else has considered.
Just because you cannot create new business idea does not mean that you should give up on your entrepreneurial dreams. Some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs are those who analyzed the current marketplace, discovered inefficiencies that could easily be corrected and decided to do something about it.
This strategy is helpful for entrepreneurs who are struggling to come up with ideas of their own. Perhaps you are someone who enjoys a certain product, but finds it to be overpriced. This is your opportunity to research the product you enjoy and see if any changes can be made during any part of the process that can have a positive effect on the pricing structure.
Or, maybe you can take a closer look at what the major players in your desired niche are doing wrong. A company does not have to be the same size as the big boys to successfully compete with them. The playing field has never been more level and a person can learn a lot from what the major business in their field are doing wrong.
There are typically enough gaps in the industry that you seek to join that can be easily exploited. Perhaps there is a service that a major company should be offering that they have not thought of. By using this as your starting point, you can start a business that already has built in clientele.
Some larger businesses are no longer in the business of innovation, they are more focused on maintaining their current piece of the pie. If so, this also provides an opportunity to come up with an idea that takes a product that is already available to the next level.
The Dream Cafe by Geoff Crook
Seeing What Others Don’t by Gary Klein
The Myths of Creativity by David Burkus
One Simple Idea by Stephen Key
A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
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]]>A summary of things you should know about The Objective Leader according to Elizabeth R Thornton: Introduction In this episode Elizabeth Thornton takes a deep dive into her book, TheRead More
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]]>In this episode Elizabeth Thornton takes a deep dive into her book, The Objective Leader, where she shows you how to leverage the power of seeing things as they are.
In her book Thornton reveals years of research on the concept of objectivity and how it will open your world to new cultures, new markets, and new opportunities. The goal of the book is to help you improve your management skills, make decisions faster than normal, avoid bad decision making, and eliminate the fear of failure when it comes to life and business.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who typically overreact to negative situations, judge people too quickly, and let their insecurities get the best of them.
My book talks about the entrepreneur themselves, their mindset, and how to keep them clear in their mindset so that they can make better decisions along the way.
I would suggest the reader read the book from front to back.
I would say that the world is in your mind and we all have the power to change our minds.
The first chapter of the book is all about how I lost a million dollars and I take you through my whole experience from beginning to end.
From there we jump right into chapter two which is all about setting the context for objectivity and subjectivity. I define objectivity as the ability to see and recognize things as they are without projecting your fears, your background, your past experiences, and your mental miles on to whatever it is and responding thoughtfully, deliberately, and purposefully to everything you experience.
The first step in being objective is about understanding how we relate to the world and I call that The Subject Object Relationship which we go into in detail. What we experience through our senses is an object of our awareness and we respond to whatever that is which means you are responsible for and drive your response to everything that you experience. And then we go through what I call Drivers of Subjectivity and all these things that we can project onto what is that may color our ability to see things as they are.
Chapter four is about applying all of that to leadership and lays out a framework for increasing objectivity.
Chapter five is all about being objective under pressure and I give the key tactics, tools, and tips you can use to be objective in the moment.
Chapter six goes over mental models. We all have mental models which are one of the things that we project onto what it is that keeps us from seeing things as they are. One of the things I talk about in this chapter is some of the limiting and unproductive mental models that we have and I share research that I have conducted that points to five mental models that most of us have. In order to transform a mental model you have to think about it differently because mental models are deep rooted ideas and beliefs about the way things are and the way things ought to be.
The last two chapters of the book are devoted to the entrepreneur completely.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 08:00
“The world is in your mind.” – Elizabeth R Thornton
I have been with Babson College as the professor of entrepreneurship since 2006.
I lost a million dollars in an international fruit juice business and it taught me so much. Getting back on my feet I realized it wasn’t the business decision I was making along the way, it was how I framed my world and my inability to see things as they were. As a result of that I started studying psychology, neuroscience, and entrepreneurship and just trying to put it all together. I started learning about objectivity and developed a course around it that I wanted to share with others.
Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute
Buy The Objective Leader by Elizabeth Thornton on Amazon today
Visit ElizabethRThornton.com to learn more about Elizabeth and her book
Follow Elizabeth R Thornton on Facebook and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Seeing What Others Don’t by Gary Klein
Anticipate by Rob-Jan de Jong
Fairness is Overrated by Tim Stevens
Relevant advice and tips:
5 Characteristics of A Great Leader
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Seeing What Others Don’t according to Gary Klein: Introduction In this episode Gary Klein reveals all his insights on his book, SeeingRead More
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]]>In this episode Gary Klein reveals all his insights on his book, Seeing What Others Don’t, where he reveals when, why, and how insights are formed and what blocks them.
In his book Klein shares stories involving his years of cognitive learning research that uncover the origins of creativity and how many successful innovators were able to create their marvelous ideas. The goal of the book is to help you train your brain to be more creative, effectively solve more problems, avoid disruptive idea blockers, and think faster than the average person.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who work in a stressful, fast-paced environment and want to learn how to improve their cognitive thinking skill in order to make fast, intelligent decisions.
My book is based on 120 cases of actual insight research. This is a fresh look of how people actually come up with insights.
There can be some jumping in and out but I suggest you read it straight through.
If there is only one thing the one thing would be this notion of a down and an up arrow. Too often our thinking is over balanced about reducing mistakes and being defensive and there needs to be a balance. We need to balance how much energy we are putting into reducing mistakes and how much energy we are putting into gaining insights.
The first section asks the question of where do insights come from and it not only describes how insights are achieved but it also shows how I came up with each conclusion. The outcome of this first part is a new model of where insights come from. I show that there are several different paths, one is a traditional path, another is a path people have heard of, and the third is a path no one had mentioned before.
Now that we know where insights come from we ask the question why we don’t have more of them. To my surprise I find that there are a lot of forces that work against having insights and the scariest is that organizations are afraid of them. They claim that they want to promote it and believe it but insights don’t work well with organizations because insights are disruptive.
The third part of the book is about what we can do to try to increase insights. I have some suggestions about what we can do personally and I have more suggestions about what we can do to help others gain insights. I also have some suggestions about what organization can do and I am working with organizations that want to increase the number or insights.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 03:38
“I have tried to take some of the mystery out of insights but I don’t want to diminish the aww we feel when we encounter insights whether it’s our own or someone else’s. At these times something magical has happened.” – Gary Klein
I was trained in experimental psychology and over the years I got interested in seeing how people actually work outside of laboratories and specifically how people make life and death decisions under extreme time pressure. So we’ve studied firefighters, nurses, physicians and so forth to see what they actually do.
I would make presentations on my work on decision making to audiences and there was a slide that I would use that had an up arrow and a down arrow. The down arrow was ways to improve performance by reduction and the up arrow was about what to increase in order to improve performance. What you wanted to increase was insights and so I would tell groups that and they resonated to it. They kept asking me questions about the up arrow that I didn’t have answers to. Finally I decided I need to do some research and study the up arrow which is what led me to writing this book.
What Computers Still Can’t Do by Hubert Dreyfus
Buy Seeing What Others Don’t by Gary Klein on Amazon today
Visit PsychologyToday.com to learn more about Gary’s blog
Visit ShadowboxTraining.com to learn more about Gary’s training techniques
Follow Gary Klein on Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
The Innovative Entrepreneur by Daniel Spluber
Anticipate by Rob-Jan de Jong
The Myths of Creativity by David Burkus
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A Quick Look at 5 of the Latest Books for Entrepreneurs The Entrepreneurs Library presents some of the latest books for entrepreneurs in March 2015. These books are brand newRead More
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]]>The Entrepreneurs Library presents some of the latest books for entrepreneurs in March 2015. These books are brand new to the market and the authors are in line to give a thorough deep dive of their books. Stay tuned this month for the release of the interviews with these great books and their authors.
Based on extensive research, Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us reveals the best practices of the most successful entrepreneurs, those who are adept at continually innovating and seeing opportunity where others do not.
What works for the most successful entrepreneurs will work for us, Brown argues, whether we want to stay employed working for someone else or are thinking of going off on our own. Though of course we won’t all start or run our own companies, we need to learn to think like entrepreneurs so that when uncertainty hits, as it will again and again, individuals and companies will be better prepared to not only survive but win.
In short, the entrepreneurial mindset is a protection against economic uncertainty, and Brown’s goal is to spread that thinking to individuals and large organizations alike.
“I believe entrepreneurship has to the power to go a long way toward providing the future we as individuals and corporate businesspeople aspire to have. Innately, we are all entrepreneurs, but too few of us get to practice it. Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us can help change that.” – Leonard A. Schlesinger, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School
“In searching for ways to become more innovative, there is no better role model than successful entrepreneurs—people, who by definition, have created something that did not exist before. In Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us, Paul B. Brown explains simply and in detail how they think so we can learn from their success. Everyone from Fortune 100 executives to potential entrepreneurs can benefit.” – Andrea Coville, president and CEO, Brodeur Partners
Learn more about Paul B Brown | Buy Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us on Amazon
The Social Profit Handbook presents assessment and evaluation not as ends in themselves but as the path toward achieving what matters most in the social sector. The result: more benefits to society and stronger, more unified, more effective organizations prepared to make the world a better place.
The Social Profit Handbook offers those who lead, govern, and support mission-driven organizations and businesses new ways to assess their impact in order to improve future work rather than merely judge past performance.
David Grant’s insights, illustrated by numerous case studies, make this book a unique organizational development tool for a wide range of nonprofit organizations, as well as emerging mission-based social venture businesses, such as low-profit corporations and B Corps.
“For many years, David Grant has helped our organization create firm foundations for new projects and initiatives through the principles outlined in this excellent roadmap for rethinking success. At last his guidance and wisdom are available to anyone fortunate enough to come across this book.”– Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts
“Anyone in the business of improving lives—whether they spend their days in government or in mission-driven organizations—can benefit from this simple, elegant, and incisive guide to having not just more impact, but also the right impact. David Grant has produced a book that belongs on the shelves of every political and social leader interested in translating goals to successes.”– Peter Welch, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives
Learn more about David Grant | Buy The Social Profit Handbook on Amazon
Both scientifically sophisticated and fun to read, Seeing What Others Don’t shows that insight is not just a “eureka!” moment but a whole new way of understanding.
Gary Klein is a keen observer of people in their natural settings—scientists, businesspeople, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, family members, friends, himself—and uses a marvelous variety of stories to illuminate his research into what insights are and how they happen.
We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed—or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don’t Klein unravels the mystery.
“His analysis of how Google searches and corporate culture inhibit insight is intriguing, while suggestions for improving the chances of having a breakthrough are practical and useful for many facets of life.” —Publishers Weekly
“No one has taught me more about the complexities and mysteries of human decision-making than Gary Klein.” — Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Outliers
Learn more about Gary Klein | Buy Seeing What Others Don’t on Amazon
Nice Guys Finish First provides stories, lessons, concrete takeaways and action items. The reader will go beyond finding out why nice guys finish first and discover how to be successful using the lessons provided.
In order to win relationships in today’s business climate, you must first understand the importance of having systems in place to provide exemplary service, making people a priority over products, putting the client experience at the top of the list and valuing relationships over technology.
The book walks the reader along a path to becoming a student of Sandler’s system: Invest, Inspire and Execute. The chapters break the system down into smaller pieces, guiding the reader through practical application and lessons about leadership, technology, consistency, trust and empowerment.
“Doug Sandler has written an inspiring, well structured, easy to read book that is a success system for life in general and not just for your business. Readers will appreciate the practical examples and end of chapter action items.” — John Watson, author of The Ultimate Guide to Consulting in the Networked Age
Learn more about Doug Sandler | Buy Nice Guys Finish First on Amazon
Despite the proliferation of people engaging in freelance and contract work, however, the path to success is not always easy. Free Agent: The Independent Professional’s Roadmap to Self-Employment Success details a pragmatic action plan to help you succeed in this new skills marketplace.
Supplying practical strategies to help you get ahead of the change and become an in-demand resource with a steady stream of income, the book describes how work is changing and what is driving the growth of freelancing. Next, it explains how to get your new independent venture off the ground, how to find your first client, and what you need to know to avoid common pitfalls.
Detailing the tools and practices that will enable you to succeed as a free agent, the book includes case studies and interviews with those who have already made the transition. The book concludes by describing how to optimize your new freelance work style to make the most of your time and energy, so you can focus on doing more of what you love.
Learn more about Katy Tynan | Buy Free Agent: The Independent Professional’s Roadmap to Self-Employment Success on Amazon
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