Are You An Idea?
So you want to innovate? You want to go down the entrepreneurial path and carve your own space in the universe?
Traditional thinking suggests that you should start with a great business idea.
I cannot disagree with that; It is after all something I myself would advocate.
But indulge me as I broaden the perspective.
Before embarking on the problem, the need, the industry analysis, the opportunity, the big kick-ass business concept – ask yourself a simple, fundamental question – “Are You Yourself An Idea?”
By this, I mean :
- Stripped of everything, what do you stand for at your very core?
- When people hear your name, do concepts beyond you resonate?
- Are you married to a dream that you will live for until your very last breath?
To be fair, most entrepreneurs start their own businesses, make a ton of money, and in fact become very successful without even tangentially answering these questions. But that branch of entrepreneurship is what I would call ‘Entrepreneurship-Lite’. I’m really a bigger fan of the flipside, of ‘hardcore entrepreneurship’ – the kind wherein entrepreneurs truly pursue a Quixotic vision, ideas they cannot help but humbly submit to.
This dichotomy I believe is what separates the men from the boys, the innovators from the wannabe’s.
When you think of Muhammad Yunus, the idea of Making Poverty History relentlessly surfaces. After founding Grameen which eventually birthed the global microfinancing movement, he is now moving into the next phase with social business enterprise, of institutions and mechanisms that can create a world without poverty. Yunus has been incisively consistent along this path, and it is crystal clear that this idea is what is truly at his very core.
For the first half of his life, Bill Gates stood for a computer in every desk and every home, and this idea eventually made him the richest man on the planet. Now in Act 2 of his life, the idea that all lives have equal value is what consumes him, quite possibly for the rest of his life.
Closer to home, my InoventDesign tag-team partner Brian Quebengco is married to Championing Filipino Ideas – and believe me when I say that you’ll rarely find a more hardcore Filipino entrepreneur than him. From founding Inovent, to conceptualizing the Ilumina, and now with Inovent Academy and spurring the movement of Inovention, his vision is coming more and more into reality.
I could go on and on with more examples, but I really want to throw this back at you.
Are You An Idea? and if so, What Idea Are You?
Because it is the one question when truly, honestly answered – will make everything else easier.
And if you want to throw the question back at me, then I’d quickly answer : Harnessing Innovation for A Better World.
