Category Archives: Creativity

It’s the little things that kill

Our society tends to focus on the big ideas. We love them, me included. But since big ideas have no precedent, no path to follow, the challenge is they require uncommon action; little details that need to be figured out beforehand.

So, everyone likes talking about big ideas. But a very small number of people are actually motivated to figure out the little things that need to be right for that big idea to be delivered.

Your ability to recover from failure fast is just a important as your ability to fail fast

What do all creative cultures have in common? The common answer is that in order to figure out which ideas will work, people move fast to implement those ideas. I’d argue that more important than that is the ability to recover from failure just as fast:

Tony Fadell: Stay a beginner to drive change

Tony Fadell NestWhat’s the most powerful technique available to innovators? Observation.

Tony Fadell, the creator of the iPod and Nest thermostat, shared his mantra for innovation at a recent TED conference:

“It’s seeing the invisible problem, not just the obvious problem, that’s important,” Fadell said onstage. “There are invisible problems all around us. First we need to see them. To feel them. Then we can solve them.”

To create a successful business, you sometimes have to break rules. But which ones?

Which rules should we break, but won’t bring our business down if we do? This is a question that not too many businesses ask themselves but should. The simplest answer is to kill some stupid rules, the ones that no one has questioned because “that’s just the way we do things here”; break those and you’ll spark some innovative ideas.

We don’t need a society of more entrepreneurs; we need a society of hungry minds

As we continue discussing The Future for Youth, we’ve come up with some interesting ideas about what that looks like. One of the key ideas that has come up again and again is that parents should raise entrepreneurial children with the aim that everyone is and should be an entrepreneur.

Should we teach young people to be entrepreneurs?