Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the inspiration to drive a great business is a lot harder to find. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I often get asked for next sure-fire idea. I have to tell them that anyone can find ideas, but only you as a person can find the passion to transform one into a successful business. That’s why investors talk about investing in the jockey, not the horse.
Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and other famous entrepreneurs are examples of dedicated people who looked for inspiration, rather than ideas for their next business. From my experience and their feedback, I can summarize the top principles which provide sound inspiration for entrepreneurs, who are then often able to convert even a mundane idea into a satisfying and long-term business:
- Choose an idea from your heart, rather than someone’s head. Look inside yourself for inspiration and ideas, rather than asking me or anyone else. Only then will you find the passion to persevere through the challenges of a new venture, and actually enjoy the journey, as well as the destination. Do what you love, and it won’t even feel like work.
- Focus first on changing the world, rather than making money. Great entrepreneurs identify something larger than money to provide purpose and meaning. Happiness does not scale up with income. Studies show that doubling your income increases happiness by less than 10%. The more you focus your efforts on others, the easier it is to do great work.
- Work to anticipate a future market change and get there first. When attacking a currently known problem, chances are that dozens of others are already working on it. If you can look ahead successfully, you will have more time and fewer competitors to kill your inspiration. In addition, you will be seen and appreciated as a leader with a legacy.
- Surround yourself with inspired people, and absorb their energy. Find people you respect and admire, who are inspired, and you will find their energies contagious. They will also amplify your inspiration to your customers, and keep it growing in your own mind. These people need to cover the gamut from partners, marketers, suppliers, to customers.
- Solve a problem based on your own personal knowledge. Stick to domains within your experience, and your business inspiration will be more real and long-lived. Avoid the tendency to see the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence. It’s the things you think you know about a problem that will kill you, as well as what you don’t know.
- Be inspired by customer value rather than solution features. Customers don’t care about your product or service’s features. Instead, they want to know how your solution will benefit them, in lower costs, dreams, hopes, and ambitions met. In other words, seek inspiration from your customer’s perception of value, rather than solution features.
- Create a great customer experience, not just a product. I find that entrepreneur inspiration fades quickly, if not complemented by inspiring customer experiences. These days, customers are inspired by solutions that are easy and fun to find, have satisfying buying experiences, and great support. These get recommended many times to others.
- Keep it simple by removing features, rather than adding more. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication of design, according to many studies. Steve Jobs was a master of inspiration from sophisticated designs, from the iPod to iPhone and packaging. Beware of false inspiration from early adopters, who typically ask for more features and options.
- Practice telling your story to get and keep customers inspired. You can have the most innovative idea in the world, but if you cannot get people excited, it doesn’t matter. The key to storytelling is adapting your message and presentation to match the audience, rather than trying to find one size that fits all. Their inspiration then becomes yours.
Inspiration is what keeps your mind open to new possibilities, and that is certainly critical to business success in this age of rapid change. An idea can be innovative one day, and old news the next. Will your current inspiration and passion carry you to success through the challenges and changes that are normal for a new venture today?