Reading/listening/watching the quantity of cyber stuff we all receive, whether by email or social media, is daunting.
It’s worth it, however, because now and then You’ll find a real jewel among all the costume jewelry and plain, old junk.
As I did with this one,
Today, I asked my mentor, a very successful business man in his 70s, what his top 3 tips are for success. He smiled and said, “Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and do something no one else is doing.”
which makes a great mantra for every entrepreneur.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
More and more research is showing that real creativity is a more solo function than a team effort.
Susan Cain spells this out in a thoughtful LinkedIn post that is well worth your time, especially if you are a young founder raised on social media, with a penchant for crowdsourcing and Yelp.
Consider the words of Steve Wozniak in his memoir iWoz.
Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me—they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.
Then read, digest and tweak Cain’s ideas to fit your situation, then put the concepts to work in your company.
I’ve had a lot of inquiries lately from managers who believe their teams have lost their edge.
Productivity is fine and they innovate, but in a predictable, prosaic way.
All were facing the same problem, but none could see that the source was themselves.
It is the same problem many bosses face, including Dan, whom I wrote about seven years ago.
So rather than spend my time and their money identifying the likely cause I sent each one this link and told them to call if they needed additional help.
A growing body of neuroscience research has begun to reveal the exact ways in which information age technologies cut against the natural grain of the human mind. Our understanding of all kinds of information is shaped by our physical interaction with that information. Move from paper to screen, and your brain loses valuable “topographical” markers for memory and insight.
Although screens have their strengths in presenting information — they are, for example, good at encouraging browsing — they are lousy at helping us absorb, process, and retain information from a focused source. And good old handwriting, though far slower for most of us than typing, better deepens conceptual understanding versus taking notes on a computer — even when the computer user works without any internet or social media distractions.
In short, when you want to improve how well you remember, understand, and make sense of crucial information about your organization, sometimes it’s best to put down the tablet and pick up a pencil.
The work described was done by the Drucker Institute and is easy to try with your people.
The great news if you want to try unplugging is that the basic techniques are simple and free. Here’s an Un/Workshop-style exercise you can try on your own time, with your own team, in just a half-hour: Including yourself, get six or more of your colleagues together. Divide yourselves into two or more small groups. Give each group one piece of paper with a single question printed on it: Who is our customer?
Depending how young your team is you may incur some minor costs — like the need to shop for paper and pencils and possibly explain how to use them.
Brainstorming is as vital to disruption and innovation as pizza is to all-nighters.
But what if you have no one with which to brainstorm?
IDEO’s founder David Kelly brainstorms on his own; here’s how he does it.
“When I want to do something analytical, I make a list. When I’m trying to come up with ideas or strategize, I make a mind map. Mind maps are organic and allow me to free associate. They are great for asking questions and revealing connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. I start in the center with the issue or problem I am working on and then as I move farther away I get better and better ideas as I force myself to follow the branches on the map and in my mind. The cool thing is that you allow yourself to follow your inner thoughts, which is different than making a list where you are trying to be complete and deal with data.”Bloomberg Business Week
A month after I started this blog in 2006 I focused on the magic found in silence; magic that allows you to think, dream and innovate.
Silence is a requirement to get to know oneself. In 2007 I wrote, “My own anecdotal evidence shows that while most people are uncomfortable with silence, others are actually terrified by it.”
Two years ago I cited Edward do Bono, a giant in the world of creative thinking, who believes that boredom is the springboard of creativity.
Being alone with no distractions was so distasteful to two-thirds of men and a quarter of women that they elected to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit quietly in a room with nothing but the thoughts in their heads.
How does a company change part of its public face to attract a different/younger market, without alienating its current base?
Kmart, which is not exactly known for its cutting edge ads, did it by finding a way to the right kind of edgy using a great story with humor.
15 million-and-counting YouTube views says it worked.
Doubly impressive because it’s family-friendly—nothing for the modesty police to condemn; everyone is dressed and everything is covered—unlike women’s underwear ads.
Victoria’s Secret it’s not, but I’m willing to bet it sells a whole lot of boxers!
Koenig launched a nonprofit organization to help distribute a locally available water transportation tool. In order to address the issues of poor quality control, corruption, and limited geographic distribution, she soon found herself at the helm of Wello. The social venture manufactures and distributes the WaterWheel, a 20-gallon drum that moves four to five times the amount of water possible using traditional methods of collection and carrying.
Simple, inexpensive and can even become a micro-business for an owner.
In contrast, five years ago the Gates Foundation issued a toilet challenge, with daunting parameters.
Make sure it takes in the bodily waste of an entire family and outputs drinkable water and condiments, like salt. And while you’re at it, make sure that the toilet is microprocessor-supervised and converts feces into energy. And all this has to cost just pennies per person per day.
That description is akin to a silver bullet, not a toilet.
The results, to date, are sophisticated, costly and unsustainable ideas, with prices north of $1000 per toilet.
How different from an available solution that, while it doesn’t do everything, does solves the basic problem and is amazingly cheap.
The Peepoo bag, which inexpensively (less than 2 cents per bag) sanitizes waste before turning it into fertilizer, are huge improvements. They can also be critical in saving lives after natural disasters.
Just think what a few thousand cases of these would mean right now in the Philippines—or in Illinois, for that matter.
Too often, sexy and elegant ends up being complex and expensive, whereas plebian and boring equates to simple and affordable.
Earlier this year I cited a study that demonstrates the value of experience for entrepreneurs, something in short supply if you are a twentysomething starting a company in your dorm room.
Best of all, there’s no upper end to creativity or sources of inspiration.
Mary Hunter says her ideas com from God, as do her recipes, but it was diabetes that drove her to find a better way to add flavor to the large roasts she cooks for her church.
And it was moxie that kept her moving forward for twenty years, because, whether your idea is the result of heavenly inspiration or drowning frustration in a few beers, execution is never smooth.
Now it’s finally happening.
Later this month, Mary’s Marinating Sticks are scheduled to go on sale in Target stores.
It took enormous risk, Hunter mortgaged her home at age 63; great support from family and friends; a sales force recruited from her church (a la Sarah Breedlove, AKA Madame C. J. Walker), the kind of hard work that generates good luck and a belief strong enough to overcome everything that went wrong—and plenty did.
There are dozens of entrepreneurs who are held up as examples of perseverance in the face of adversity, but few fought it through for 20 years.
Those that fight and win all have one thing in common; an edge of some kind.
Hunter would tell you her edge was God, others would say it was a spouse or friend or just plain stubbornness.
But I think they are more like the Energizer bunny and just keep going and going and going.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
More and more research is showing that real creativity is a more solo function than a team effort.
Earlier this year I cited a study that demonstrates 
