CHASE THE STORM
No one ever thinks of the perfect idea when they first sit down. Take a minute to chase the storm, get the gears turning. Brainstorming is crucial to starting any project. It helps if you are creative but everyone has a built-up hurricane somewhere inside.
When we are working on a team, our initial reaction is to just start talking about what we are going to do. WRONG, don’t do this. I’ve seen great ideas lost in these conversations because no one noticed them, and sometimes the worst ideas are used because those are the ones that are heard and talked about. When trying to get ideas, start off with a brainstorming session. Set a timer for a minute and a half and write down each idea on a separate note card. Ramble away; test yourself, rapid iteration is key. This way all the ideas can be seen and it nurtures ideas that wouldn’t have been thought of otherwise.
DO IT FOR FUN, DO IT FOR YOURSELF
Passion is key If you don’t love what you are doing you are not going to love the end product. A hunger for achievement will always see the better side of adversity; use your drive to scale the wall.
When we were tasked with starting a new business, there were many viable ideas but when it was time for founder dating, I had no idea what team I was going to join. Many founders had good ideas but I found I didn’t get that gut feeling about them. Until, that is, I got to Roast Café. The founder, Grant, was clearly excited about brewing coffee and had that glint in his eye as he talked about home-roasting beans and creating a fun thriving business. I chose this team because Grant’s passion rubbed off on me, I became excited to start working, I had a rush of ideas that wouldn’t have come otherwise. Passion fuels work ethic, those who work the hardest are the most passionate.
GET OUT OF THE BUILDING
So you’ve brainstormed and made hypotheses. You feel like you are nailing it… well you aren’t. Its impossible to know what your market wants before you have tested it. Take your hypothesis and go talk to people. Get out into the wild blue yonder and interview until you have something with which to move forward.
When working with Avitae, we were just starting to understand the importance of talking to the market and getting interviews. The first time I left the building and started talking to people I saw the true importance of taking this class. We were walking around University Circle, asking strangers our questions, testing hypothesis and analyzing their pains and gains. We would have been unable to formulate our solutions for Aviate without this work. The estimated 600 interviews done by the class showed the real world relationship between the public and our product and gave us data to test and backup our hypotheses.
FAIL EARLY, FAIL OFTEN
“What did you fail at today?” Is the test of how one is using one’s time. Failure simply means that you have tried something; you can’t fail if you don’t try. No idea comes to fruition without failure. The more you fail the more successful you will be.
The Marshmallow Challenge is a perfect example of, “fail early, fail often”. The challenge involves 20 uncooked spaghetti sticks, a yard of tape, a yard of yarn, and one marshmallow. The object of activity is to construct the tallest tower from the supplies that supports the marshmallow, within eighteen minutes. When the class attempted the challenge we used the completely wrong mindset about failure. We built the tallest tower we could, disregarding the marshmallow until the last twenty-five seconds when we desperately tired to balance it on the rickety structure. We failed miserably as only two teams were even able to build a weight barring structure. We had only given ourselves one chance to fail, and fail we did. Tom Wujec, the inventor of the challenge, claims that kindergarteners preform better in this situation than all other groups including graduate students and collegiate professors. Kindergarteners built the tallest towers because they are willing to iterate and create chances to fail. They started with small towers and progressed in steps, constantly testing the marshmallow on their prototype at each stage. These test often resulted in failure; however, they were able to learn from their mistakes and make improvements, ending up with the tallest towers. Thus, fail as much as you can because all failure means is that you are trying.
PRO TIP: STAY PROFESSIONAL
Professionalism starts with how you look and goes all the way to how you talk, you must be cognizant of this at all times. As long as one remains professional all mistakes can be dealt with appropriately. First you must dress the part. At the Gries Center campus there is a slightly less stringent written dress code, but we must remain professional even without a formal written code. Comfortable basketball shorts may be appropriate if you are shooting threes on the court, but in our workplace they omit a stale lack of professionalism. A crisp tucked in pastel collard shirt says, “I respect my job and my teammates and am willing to wear something a little less comfortable in order to show that I care.” Dress the way you are trying to present yourself.
Professional language is also extremely important. Be direct and know your objective. Show your colleagues that you know what you want and will achieve that goal. When Ms. Cho presents a two hundred page reading on Friday due Monday and asks if you can get it done, you better respond directly and to the point. Not, “I think I may be able to, I guess I can try…” malarkey, because that just doesn’t fly. A true professional says, “No, Ms. Cho, I cannot. On top of my other work I have a huge game this weekend. I will be able to get it done by Tuesday.” Your language shows your professor that you understand her expectations and your abilities. A true professional knows when saying no is necessary.
BE BOLD, CHANGE THE WORLD
That is the motto. Live by it. No one remembers those who follow the crowd. The crowd is where you fall behind. Used ideas are like the trampled trails of the woods, they won’t let you discover the beauty of the unknown. Strive to find the unknown, be innovative.
When working with Bold Guidance, my team recognized the agony of the college process and saw that the other “college-help” websites only made the process simpler, without curing the torture inherent to the process. My team created a college map, roughly based off of the popular Candy Crush game, which would make the process less stressful and alleviate the pain. This was a bold new concept that would set Bold Guidance apart form its competitors, due to its innovation.
GO FOR GOLD
Concluding the rules of engagement for entrepreneurs, the last snippet of ideology is; go for gold. Put everything you have learned form this manifesto and use it to go out there and achieve what you want. Do what you do and do it best. You got this, you are an entrepreneur.
Today felt like falling off of the trapeze just as we reach it with our fingertips. We had some great progress with Skinny Cart, we made blue prints for the physical cart, started work on a logo, researched products based off our interviews, and embarked on our social media campaign. We were cooking. It was exciting to see everything come together, as we prepared to open monday morning. We still had some work to get done and some questions to be answered, but we were making progress. We wanted to use social currency, to offer a desirable ora and become talked about. We planned to use social media to create this aura for Skinny Cart. By tweeting about deals and locations, we could create and connect with a following and receive traction.