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The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating Innovative Products And Services That Disrupt Markets And Change The Future
Find Out The Exact Steps And Techniques!
Have you ever dreamed of changing the world? Of coming up with an idea so ground breaking that it becomes the next Facebook, Uber or SpaceX?
Is this a fate that is reserved for just a select ‘special few’? Or is it something that you can learn, cultivate and develop?
In this short report, we’ll look at seven traits that define a successful visionary and entrepreneur and look at what you can do to emulate that success and to potentially become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk.
I can’t guarantee that it will happen, but if you develop these traits, then you’re in with a better shot!
Trait #1: They Talk About Their Ideas
A lot of ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs will spend too long jealously and secretively protecting their ideas. They are afraid their ideas will get shot down by people when they talk about them, they’re afraid people will steal them and they generally end up not telling anyone about them as a result.
This is a mistake as we’ll see – as there are HUGE benefits to talking to people about your idea.
In his great TED talk ‘Where good ideas come from’, speaker Steven Johnson describes an alternative narrative for where we get our best ideas from. Rather than striking us from the blue and causing us to jump up and shout ‘Eureka!’, Johnson suggests that most good ideas take a while to gestate and don’t arrive fully formed.
The best way to have a great idea then, is to mull over a problem for an extended period of time. Write it down when you have the germination of something that could work and then keep returning to it and iterating upon it.
Better yet, try speaking with other people. When we talk to others, it not only gives us access to their point of view and ideas (there’s the ‘crowd’ again) but it also helps us to better contextualize our own ideas. There is something valuable about saying an idea out loud and seeing how it sounds and imagining it from the perspective of others. Conversations flow and they bounce around from topic to topic and this helps to encourage that exploration of ideas that ultimately leads to novel combinations.
Don’t be jealously private about your idea – be open with it, talk about it and share it with your team. This is the best way to help it grow and turn into something amazing.
Do you really think that Steve Jobs invented the iPad on his own?
Trait #2: But They Don’t Talk Too Much
That said, you should also be wary of talking too much. This is one of the biggest warning sign that an ‘entrepreneur’ is actually a ‘wantrepreneur’. They are doing what some people call ‘playing business’.
This is the kind of person who spends a huge amount of time discussing their ideas, designing logos, holding meetings and planning their launch parties. They’re dragging their heels rather than getting on with actually creating their product or service. But it’s not because they are afraid to go live – it’s because they are just enjoying the song and dance of having an exciting idea. They waste everyone’s time with meetings and ultimately they’re more interested in wearing suits than they are in making the idea happen.
On the other hand, the real entrepreneur simply gets on with it and puts their idea into action.
Trait #3: They Are Not Afraid to Think Big
Too many people think that they can’t aim big with their business ideas. They are afraid that if they tell people that their plan is to go to space, they’ll just get laughed out of the room! Likewise for coming up with a plan to make a virtual reality headset.
Reality check: two of the most successful entrepreneurs in recent times (Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey) have built their businesses around these two ideas!
As Tim Ferris points out, it’s actually often easier to get attention for a big idea. Why? Because it’s so bombastic and so new that people sit up and they pay attention where otherwise they might have not cared. People want to be involved in something bigger than themselves. Why do you think that the Kickstarter for the Oculus Rift was so incredible successful?
Finally, consider a technique that I often use when trying to come up with new ideas for apps, services and products. I call it the ‘step-back’ technique and the idea is that you are always taking one step back from what it is you want to accomplish.
In other words, you come up with an idea for something you want to invent that could change the world and you hold nothing back. You imagine what the product or service you’d be most excited for would be in a perfect future.