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participants use the competition as a means to look at the world around them with fresh eyes, identifying opportunities in their own backyard. They challenge traditional assumptions, and in doing so generate enormous value from practically nothing.
“The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. Nobody will pay you to solve a non-problem.”4
regardless of the size of the problem, there are usually creative ways to use the resources already at your disposal to solve them. This is actually the definition many of my colleagues use for entrepreneurship: an entrepreneur is someone who is always on the lookout for problems that can be turned into opportunities and finds creative ways to leverage limited resources to reach their goals.
we so often frame problems too tightly. When given a simple challenge, such as earning money in two hours, most people quickly jump to standard responses. They don’t step back and look at the problem more broadly.
I give my students small challenges and slowly make them more difficult. As the course progresses, the students grow increasingly comfortable seeing problems through the lens of possibility and are eventually willing to take on just about anything that comes their way.
We believe, along with a growing number of universities around the world, that it isn’t good enough for students to come out of school with a purely technical education. To be successful, they need to understand how to be entrepreneurial leaders in all working environments and in all parts of their lives.
the rules that apply in school are often completely different from those in the outside world. This disparity causes incredible stress when we leave school and attempt to find our way. Gracefully bridging that gap to tackle real-world challenges can be extremely difficult, but it’s doable with the right tools and mind-set.
For homework they are asked to read assigned material from a textbook and quietly absorb it on their own. This couldn’t be any more different from life after college, where you are your own teacher, charged with figuring out what you need to know, where to find the information, and how to absorb it. In fact, real life is the ultimate open book exam. The doors are thrown wide open, allowing you to draw on endless resources around you as you tackle open-ended problems related to work, family, friends, and the world at large.
The key to success is the ability to extract the lessons out of each of these experiences and to move on with that new knowledge.
it is helpful to know that we don’t have to be right the first time. Life presents everyone with many opportunities to experiment and recombine our skills and passions in new and surprising ways.
My hope is to challenge you to see yourself and the world in a fresh light. The ideas are straightforward, but not necessarily intuitive.
Essentially, we aren’t taught to embrace problems. We’re taught that problems are to be avoided, or something to complain about.
We can challenge ourselves every single day. That is, we can choose to view the world through different lenses—lenses that allow us to see problems in a new light. The more we take on problems, the more confident and proficient we become at solving them.
Attitude is perhaps the biggest determinant of what we can accomplish. True innovators face problems directly and turn traditional assumptions on their head.
The first step to solving big problems is to identify them. In the world of product design, this is called “need finding.”
if we clearly define a problem, the solution will logically present itself.
in many cases those who are on the front lines are so used to the problems they experience every day that they don’t even see them, or can’t imagine radical approaches to solving them.
The key to need finding is identifying and filling gaps—that is, gaps in the way people use products, gaps in the services available, and gaps in the stories they tell when interviewed about their behavior.
assumptions are sometimes so integrated into our view of the world that it’s hard to see them. However, with a little practice, it becomes a useful way to look at your options in a fresh light.
It is much more comfortable to stay locked in a role that’s “good enough” than to reach for an alternative that has a higher degree of uncertainty. Most of us are content taking small, reliable steps. We don’t get very far, but we don’t rock the boat either.
If your goal is to make meaning by trying to solve a big problem in innovative ways, you are more likely to make money than if you start with the goal of making money, in which case you will probably not make money or meaning.
All of these examples reinforce the idea that there is great benefit to identifying problems in your midst and then relentlessly working to solve them by challenging traditional assumptions. Problems are abundant, just waiting for those willing to find inventive solutions. This takes acute observation, coordinated teamwork, the ability to execute a plan, a willingness to learn from failure, and creative problem solving.
The famous psychologist B. F. Skinner once wrote that all human behavior can be viewed as being adaptive to either the individual, the gene pool, or to society at large.1 However, these three forces are often at odds, causing significant tension.
the world is divided into people who wait for others to give them permission to do the things they want to do and people who grant themselves permission.
people who get to the top work harder than those around them, they have more energy that propels them forward, and they’re markedly more driven to get there. He notes that in the past people in the inner circle inherited their wealth and access. But today that isn’t the case. The majority of people who claim great success have made it happen on their own. This means that the primary barriers to success are self-imposed. The corollary to this is, as David says, “The biggest ally of superachievers is the inertia of others.”
If you want a leadership role, then take on leadership roles. Just give yourself permission to do so. Look around for holes in your organization, ask for what you want, find ways to leverage your skills and experiences, be willing to make the first move, and stretch beyond what you’ve done before. There are always opportunities waiting to be exploited. Instead of waiting to be asked and tiptoeing around an opportunity, seize it. It takes hard work, energy, and drive—but these are the assets that set leaders apart from those who wait for others to anoint them.
On the most basic level, all learning comes from failure. Think of a baby learning to walk. He or she starts out crawling and then falling before finally mastering the skill that as an adult we take for granted. As a child gets older, each new feat, from catching a baseball to doing algebra, is learned the same way, by experimenting until you are finally successful. We don’t expect a child to do everything perfectly the first time, nor should we expect adults who take on complex tasks to get it all right the first time, either.
It is also nearly impossible to learn anything without doing it yourself, by experimenting along the way, and by recovering from the inevitable failures. You can’t learn to play soccer by reading the rulebook, you can’t learn to play the piano by studying sheets of music, and you can’t learn to cook by reading recipes.
you can read as many books on leadership as you want, but until you experience the challenges that face real leaders, you will never be prepared to take charge.
Quitting is actually incredibly empowering. It’s a reminder that you control the situation and can leave whenever you like. You don’t have to be your own prison guard, keeping yourself locked up in a place that isn’t working. But that doesn’t mean quitting is easy.
The great news is that quitting allows you to start over with a clean slate. And, if you take the time to evaluate what happened, quitting can be an invaluable learning experience.
a successful career is not a straight line but a wave with ups and downs.
On reflection, there appear to be five primary types of risks: physical, social, emotional, financial, and intellectual.
under most circumstances you have to make decisions with incomplete information. That is, you have to make a choice and take action in the face of considerable uncertainty surrounding each option.
As Jeff Hawkins says, “You are not your company. You are not your product. It is real easy to think you are and it is real easy to get wrapped up in it…. But if you fail, or even if you are successful, it is not you. Your company may fail, your product may fail, but you aren’t the failure.” Keep in mind that failure is a natural part of the learning process. If you aren’t failing sometimes, then you probably aren’t taking enough risks.
A quote attributed to the Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao-Tzu sums this up: The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.
When you look back on your career path the story makes perfect sense. The road ahead, however, is always fuzzy and full of boundless uncertainty. It’s easy to get frustrated by the lack of visibility ahead. You can, however, do things to increase the odds that great opportunities will come your way.
He suggests that you build a career in such a way that you optimize the quality of the people with whom you work, which ends up increasing the quality of the opportunities that flow your way. Great people support each other, build valuable networks, and create a steady stream of new opportunities. Essentially, the ecosystem in which you live and work is a huge factor in predicting the types of opportunities that will present themselves.
It is important to reassess your life and career relatively frequently. This self-assessment process forces you to come to terms with the fact that sometimes it’s time to move on to a new environment in order to excel. Most people don’t assess their roles frequently enough and so stay in positions for years longer than they should, settling for suboptimal situations.
The more frequently you assess your situation, looking for ways to fix problems, the more likely you are to find yourself in a position where things are going well. It’s best to address small problems that crop up in your life early and often, as opposed to waiting for problems to get so big that they seem intractable.
Don’t be in a rush to get to your final destination—the side trips and unexpected detours quite often lead to the most interesting people, places, and opportunities. And, finally, be wary of all career advice, including mine, as you figure out what’s right for you.
Not surprisingly, lucky people tend to be extraverted. They make more eye contact and smile more frequently, leading to more positive and extended encounters. These actions, in turn, open the door to more opportunities. Lucky people also tend to be optimistic and to expect good things to happen to them. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because even when things don’t go as expected, lucky people find ways to extract positive outcomes from the worst situations.
being observant, open-minded, friendly, and optimistic invites luck your way.
Dana didn’t wait to be anointed by someone in authority; he simply asked for what he wanted.
the importance of writing thank-you notes remains one of her most valuable lessons.
Some of the other little things that make a big difference in your life are simple, while others are more challenging. Some are intuitive and others surprising. Some are taught in schools but most are not. Over the years I’ve stumbled many times, sometimes irreversibly, by not understanding these “little things.”
You aren’t going to like everyone and everyone isn’t going to like you, but there’s no need to make enemies. For example, when you look for your next job, it’s quite likely that the person interviewing you will know someone you know. In this way your reputation precedes you everywhere you go. This is beneficial when you have a great reputation, but harmful when your reputation is damaged.
Essentially, your reputation is your most valuable asset—so guard it well. But don’t be terribly demoralized if you make some mistakes along the way.
thinking about how you want to tell the story in the future is a great way to assess your response to dilemmas in general. Craft the story now so you’ll be proud to tell it later.
knowing how to apologize is incredibly important. A simple acknowledgment that you messed up goes a long way. There’s no need for long speeches and explanations; just say, “I didn’t handle that very well. I apologize.” The sooner you do this after recognizing your mistake, the better. If you wait a long time to apologize, the damage continues to grow.
