Think Creatively to Innovate in Hard Times
18 December 2008
Of course, we all know that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But when life gives you a mine field, set up a butcher shop? That’s innovative entrepreneurship!
Filed under: Business by Michael
I would love for there to be a butcher in Lincoln, but I realize that is not the point. The question is, what does someone like me do in order to be innovative?
Great question, David. Innovative people create products/services/ideas that fill a need of some kind, typically where no one else is working or by doing it better than everyone else. Think Apple (cool stuff that’s easy to use), LL Bean (unconditional guarantee), Seth Godin (intuitive marketing), Cirque du Soleil (not your father’s circus), Garr Reynolds/Presentation Zen (not your father’s PowerPoint), Moleskine (notebooks for artists and creatives–or people who want to think they are), Dan Pink/Johnny Bunko (career guide in manga).
So: 1) what can you do better than the next guy? And 2) what need can you fill?
I wish I knew the answers to these questions. I feel like my problem is that there are things I feel I can do better, but it isn’t something new. Does that make a difference, I mean the butcher waiting for animals to blow up isn’t entirely new. Animals die hourly and butchers are everywhere and mines are more of a commonality than they should be, it’s all three being added together that make it innovative. I’m just not sure what need an Anglophile wannabe author, Bible exegete can fill.
David–there’s a place for you and your gifts somewhere; just need to figure that out. Richard St. John’s research in his book “Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky, and Rich” shows that people tend to be either “strivers” or “seekers.” Strivers know from an early age what they want to do and follow that path. My eight-year-old daughter, for example, has talked about being a teacher since she was five; I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what she chooses to do with her life.
Seekers, on the other hand, try a lot of different things in life before they discover what they’re truly passionate about. Most people tend to fall in the seeker camp. My guess is that you’re there too.
I’d encourage you to read and reflect on Richard St. John’s book, and maybe Johnny Bunko as well. We’ve had students in the business program read this and have received a lot of positive feedback from them. I’d be willing to help you talk through some of this as well, if you’re interested.
Yes, I am. I feel like my biggest problem is that I always have too many ideas and not enough time to do them all.