Coming Soon – Mindset, Methods and Metrics – How Innovative Ideas Become Successful Products

“Since nothing is perfect, everything is subject to change over time. The inventor is motivated to improve on the perceived and real shortcomings of a device or process that fails to function properly.”
All inventors are driven by the real or perceived failure of existing things or processes to work as well as they might. They revel in problems. Inventors see opportunity through the lens of what is wrong with existing artifacts and how such wrongs can be righted.

Finding fault in existing things and seeking ways to improve them is at the core the fuel of invention and innovation. The inventor is driven to make existing things better.

Mistakes are used as stepping stones.

Failures and the knowledge of things that wouldn’t work provide them with a springboard to new approaches to solving old problems. Made things come out of purposeful human activity. Novelty arises among continuously evolving artifacts.

This is consistent with the “adjacent possibilities” paradigm in which novelty emerges through the interaction of the “actual” with the “possible.” The design process puts a functional structure in place to bring into existence these emergent novelties as innovations and inventions.”

Mindset, Metrics and Methods

We have a methodology which works hand-in-hand with mindset to produce a framework that supports creative solutions and increases entrepreneurial opportunities and success. In the world of business we need key performance metrics to document our progress and prove the financial viability of our business model. Mindset, metrics and methods when properly aligned empower your entrepreneurial journey and lead to success unexpected.

A new model for successful entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur as pioneer, as agitator, and as change agent.

• It was intended as a manifesto and as a declaration of dissent: the entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes. As Joseph Schumpeter formulated it, his task is “creative destruction.”― Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles.

“If you do everything that everyone else does in business, you are going to lose. The only way to really be ahead is to be different.” – Larry Ellison Founder and CEO of Oracle 

Technology and innovation create new ways of doing things and, in the process, leave the old ways behind.

The Mindset of a Successful Entrepreneur

It is the Mental Game that matters most. The relationship of mindset to championship performance is well documented but not adequately applied to the art and science of entrepreneurship.

What tends to differentiate the all-stars from the rest of the pack resides between the ears—attitude, mindset

Successful entrepreneurs are successful because they have a high need for achievement supported by a willingness to take on higher risks and the willingness to look at novel ways of acting.

They have a deeply held belief in their ability to get things done and handle whatever is required of them to advance their enterprise. Successful entrepreneurship is a combination applied creativity, ingenuity, sills, knowledge, vision and passion which is converted into tangible outcomes.

Your Entrepreneurial Transformation Begins With an Adaptation of a Growth Mindset

• Embrace Challenges
• Persists in the face of setbacks
• See effort as the path to mastery
• Learns through feedback including criticism
• Find’s lessons and inspirations in the success of others

When the world around us is changing rapidly, we need principles to guide our work

In a world that’s constantly changing, how can you be sure of anything? The world by it’s nature is in a state of flux. You maintain the illusion of stability and familiarity until one of the numerous “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” comes knocking on your door. You get fooled by randomness, washed away in a flash flood of disasters or knocked off your horse in a thousand different ways.

From a human perspective, life is dense, uncertain  and impermanent. We live with the comfortable delusion that all is well. Yet change is the norm. And it is the dynamic of change that plows through the old and settled ways bringing with it creative destruction and opportunity.

Change is the main source of growth and opportunity. Change creates new problems. Problems create markets. Markets create opportunity.

This approach to entrepreneurship is a unique in that it begins with mindset, progresses through methods and is strengthened through metrics. It is based on a very simple, yet profound principle that you have “to be” before you can “do’ and “do” before you can have.

While the existential question of “who you are”  may seem irrelevant to a business quest, I can assure you that it is essential in preparing you for real success.

You are not a cog in a machine grinding out new products in return for the “coin of the realm.”

Money is the means by which you grow your idea into products and services that people want and will pay for, however it is your creativity, innovation and passion that fuels the journey.

This philosophical foundation is enabled through mental preparation and empowered by intelligent action. The real question in any endeavor that begins with an idea is the identification of the true value to someone.

You’re not the answer for everyone but you are the answer for someone. Your task is to discover who this someone is.

This “someone”, often referred to as your “persona,”  is the person for whom your solution is devised. Understanding this “persona” and the people who also have the same need is the basis for your market. Problems defined markets. Personas help you to narrow your focus and accurately map your solution to their needs (gains, pains and jobs)

The Journey Begins with these Steps

Narrow your focus  

When you truly understand that you are not the answer for everyone, that your market is not “everyone” and that people are not going to beat a path to your door, you realize that your hypothesized solution must be intimately aligned with the problems that exist in your market.

Do one thing well 

Knowing for whom you are the answer is mission critical to your success. To begin the value delivery process you don’t have to solve all of the problems defined in this market. Just the one that is causing the greatest pain. Do one thing well. Do it better than anyone else. Simple. Not easy.

Eliminate unproductive distractions

Life is filled with distractions. It is imperative that you eliminate or at least reduce the unproductive ones. There are five cognitive states that will determine your entire life:

• Attention: Taking notice of someone, some “thing” or some thought. It is what you “attend” to on a moment to moment basis.

• Intention: Creates the blueprint, designs the outcome and sets the target!

• Action: Activities that produce the intended outcomes.

Your life is in fact are the things that attract and keep your attention. It the attraction is producing good results it is in your interest to

The Laws of Creation

Creating reality is a process that you can apply even if you consider yourself bereft of any creative abilities. What is required is a solid understanding of the laws of creation.

Complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman observed that “innovation arises from the interplay of the actual and the possible.” This creative edge of the known and unknown is referred to as the adjacent possible. All innovation seems to follow a predictable and easily measured pattern.

We live somewhere in the middle where the familiar defines our world. Closer to the edge is considered risky business. Yet closer to the edge is where novel ideas and opportunities exist.

This space of unexplored possibilities is where novelty exists. Metaboxical thinking permits entry into this realm. The metabox is your unique set of concepts, knowledge and beliefs as to what is real and what is possible. In the middle of it all is your comfort zone. It’s all familiar and comfortable. Some refer to this as the “dead zone.”

At the edge and beyond your (institutional) metabox is the adjacent possible and beyond. Exploration at the edge of (your) known world is the means by which you can open up this space of unexplored possibilities (SUP) and discover novel solutions and methods which can enhance your ability to invent, innovate and commercialize your creativity.

Creative thinking acknowledges and rejects the accepted paradigm to come up with new ideas.

Pushing the boundaries of the Box

To think outside the box is to look further and to try not thinking of the obvious things, but to try thinking of the things beyond them. In our metaboxical system we use a variety of thinking tools and mind hacks to assist us in piercing the Box boundaries.

We have to challenge our assumptions and determine if they are still valid. Metaboxical thinking is a means to detect and escape from the unconscious boundaries imposed by our perception of a problem. We need to question the most obvious aspects of our knowledge of the problem and question the most obvious elements of the approach we take to arrive at a solution set. This approach helps us to jump the perceived boundaries of the box and switch to a new line of thinking.

We let go of an unsuccessful attempts at solving a problem and come at it from a new angle by using lateral or divergent thinking. Changing the sequence of steps and leap-frogging sequential thinking with quantum leaps into divergent space.

This initial departure from the Box is inspired by the work of Chaos theorist Stuart Kauffman in which he postulates that all innovation has a common pattern which is derived from the interplay of the actual with the possible. I have used this hypothesis to create unique divergences from the known “knowns” into a deeper inquiry of problem space.

Problem Space is where the true nature of the problem to be solved is explored and understood. The people who have the problem are your best source to discover what a meaningful solution should look like, Jumping too quickly into Solution Space is problematic.

It leads to solutions that are misaligned with the needs of the customer. This process of solving the problem before you actually understand the full nature of the problem leads to “solution pollution.” Our approach reduces the urge to “fill in the blanks” with what you already know and keeps the door of the space of unexplored possibilities open to better aligned solution sets.

To enable our creative journey at the edge of the “known” world, we begin with three elements:

• The Law of Intention: Creates the blueprint, designs the outcome and sets the target!
  • Nothing kills intention faster than apathy!
  • Be passionate about it.
  • Directs your attention.

• The Law of Attraction: Creates the space for the desired outcome. It says “Look at me! I’m what you’ve been looking for!” It draws in the knowledge, people and resources needed to create it in form.

• The Law of Action: Activities that produce the desired outcomes. It utilizes the the knowledge, people and resources required to put everything together in accordance with the blueprint and design. Act-Learn-Build. Build-Measure-Learn.

A successful creation requires all three elements to work together.

• Attraction without intention leads to mismatched desires and missions.
• Action without intention leads to activity without accomplishment.
• Action without attraction creates lost causes. It means that you are unable to attract the right people and resources to produce the desired outcome.
• Intention without attraction leads to delusional dreams
• Intention without action is “wishful thinking.”
• Attraction without action disables your ability to act on opportunities. Attraction provides you with opportunity. But it is action that enables you to realize the potential of the opportunity.
• change without intention or direction is chaos.
• Change with intention and direction is the core of a productive creative process.

Who pays for your brilliant idea?
What problem are you solving? Who gets the most benefits? Problems define markets!
Knowing who the customer is drives the design of the value proposition