TAB Australia
TAB Austria
TAB Canada
TAB Chile
TAB Czech Republic
TAB England
TAB France
TAB Germany
TAB India
TAB Ireland
TAB Israel
TAB Mexico
TAB Moldova
TAB Netherlands
TAB New Zealand
TAB Portugal
TAB Romania
TAB Scotland
TAB Slovakia
TAB South Africa
TAB Spain
TAB Switzerland
TAB United States
TAB Wales
The Wall Street Journal published a story in their Small Business Report titled How to Come Up With a Great Idea. There is no cookbook formula to this, however the writer took an interesting approach in asking prominent business experts & entrepreneurs where inspiration comes from. Here are some of the ideas that jumped out:
- If you think you're too old to start a business, twice as many successful entrepreneurs are aged over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 than under 20.
- Make a note whenever you encounter a service of a customer experience that frustrates you. As one of the experts commented, ask yourself if there's a better way.
- There were many comments about seeking inspiration from indirect sources. Follow the arts, research other industries and talk to people you would not normally approach.
- Find an idea to make the world a better place. (<Click to tweet this!) Think big.
- Listen to customers & to front-line employees.
- One of my favorites is to pay attention to history. Folks in the 1950s & 60s went overboard with instant coffee and TV dinners. Starbucks & Whole Foods looked back to a better experience. And it may not be profitable, but I'd love to have a domestic flying experience where I didn't feel like one of the cattle.
- And to add one of my own ideas to this, look to your data. As I wrote in an earlier blog, there's gold in Big Data.
Hopefully your idea will work out successfully. But if it doesn't, as Andy Rachleff of Stanford advises: Make sure you can fail fast and cheaply.
Want additional insight? Download Hiring a Business Coach for Your Small Business now
Of course, the idea is only part of the mix. As Thomas Edison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahnenam, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow would probably modify that to something like "success is 1/3 inspiration, 1/3 perspiration, and 1/3 Good Luck." In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahnenam, a psychologist who specializes in decision making and behavioral economics, utilizes probability extensively in his research. He concludes there is just too much evidence to indicate that plain old luck has a great deal to do with success.
The WSJ also ran an on-line survey on what entrepreneurs do differently. They concluded that entrepreneurs agree with the following statements more than everyone else.
- If I have to stop pursuing a goal in my life, I find it difficult stop trying to achieve it; I can't let it go.
- Past failure in entrepreneurial endeavors increases the chance that a new business will success.
Entrepreneurs are a tenacious and optimistic lot.
