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As you might remember from Dr. Carter's lectures in the first lesson in this
specialization, Getting the Right Mindset,
entrepreneurial inspiration tends to fall into two categories.
Unintended opportunity discovery or willful opportunity creation.
I will be building on these themes during this course.
However, for the purposes of idea generation,
I like the term serendipity versus intent.
Ideas seem to fall into these two broad categories.
One, we're wandering through life and suddenly like a lightning strike or
a gift from above, an idea presents itself that is worth pursuing.
The second notion is that ideation can only be born from intently searching for
the right opportunities.
Like most things, I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
So why not design our lives to be prepared for serendipity
while actively pursuing the paths of discovery you feel are most promising.
The reality is, just like a complex highway system,
there are many different ways to get to the same destination.
Some ideas will present themselves opportunistically,
like driving through an unfamiliar neighborhood and
stumbling into maybe a great new coffee shop or restaurant.
While others require a careful map, like traveling to a neighboring city
to visit an art museum where maybe your favorite artist is on exhibition.
So how do you open yourself up to all of these different paths of opportunity?
While I'm certainly not a qualified psychologist,
I can assure you that the key to success in ideation is to be curious.
People who are curious are the most interesting types of people.
The more curious you are,
the more quickly you begin to utilize the power of convergence.
I'd like to take a little time to talk about this power.
Convergence is the ability to combine seemingly disparate or
unrelated concepts, objects, motivations into new and exciting discoveries.
Convergence is a term that underlies some of the most innovative
companies in the world.
Apple, Google,
Tesla, Uber, PayPal, all the companies that we think are the most cutting edge.
The list goes on and on.
The key to convergence is being able to resist the path dependency.
To take a different road every once in a while, and
be prepared to act upon what you discover.
So what do we need to get ready for the ideation process?
Step one is letting go of your biases.
Unfortunately, our brains are programmed to build on past experience as a guide,
and with good reason.
This type of thinking keeps you safe.
But in the era of rapid innovation we live in today,
this programming can unfortunately hamper creativity.
The key to overcoming this very powerful influencer is to be mindful that it works
against your entrepreneurial intentions.
So during this journey, when you begin to doubt based on past experience,
keep it at bay by questioning you gut.
Is your hesitancy based on your own biases or on a market fact?
Putting aside your biases, by putting in the work needed to prove or
likely disprove this feeling.
Similarly to our reliance on the past to power our future, humans are programmed to
optimize comfort by relying on patterns to simplify our lives.
The ideation is dependent on exposure to the new and the different.
The concept of convergence doesn't work without a consistent stream of
new content.
So take the long way to work tomorrow.
Turn off the TV and read a new blog tonight, and go for
a run at a different park.
This seems so simple, but in reality,
disrupting these patterns will heighten your senses, which just might be the thing
you need to get ideating towards your next business idea.
Lastly, get yourself ready to develop your plan.
As we have mentioned many times, there is no linear path in this entrepreneurial
journey, but we're trying to go step by step through our course.
All businesses are different and each has their own unique journey.
But you need to know, what is the first step for you?
Begin planning now.
What are your goals and expectations from this journey?
These positive affirmations can be critical in making sure you begin looking
for ideas that fit the journey you want.
Okay, with this groundwork in place, let's dive into our next lesson,
the power of observation.
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Ken SzymusiakManaging Director, Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Forrest S. CarterAssociate Professor, Faculty Director of Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
David WheelerCreative Research Faculty, The Hub for Innovation
