Creating & Developing an innovative mindset...

[danielhv]

Hello everyone,

New to the forums, and just finished the book. I'll try to keep it short and sweet here...

I'm 33 years old, working a 7-5 job. Married with young ones.

I have never really considered myself a creative person, and perhaps I'm wrong in this but feel that I have a lack of ability to recognize niche and innovative opportunities. I'm determined to train my mind to be open and able to recognize these things when they come across my path.

Example: I vividly remember a night when I was trying to plug my phone charger into the port on the bottom of my phone and remember saying to myself, "I wish they had chargers that were magnetic like the Apple laptops"... I plugged my phone in and never thought about doing anything else about it. Low and behold, it's been invented. And of course in hindsight, I'm disappointed in myself. I feel like I should have recognized that opportunity but the thought of solving that problem didn't even enter my mind! I wished someone else had done it! WTF!?!

My question is this: What can I do to help build my creative and innovative muscles? What books can you suggest that would maybe help open my eyes and help me train my brain so to speak?

Looking forward to the discussion!

Thank you,

Daniel

 

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[Perry Rico]

Hello everyone,

New to the forums, and just finished the book. I'll try to keep it short and sweet here...

I'm 33 years old, working a 7-5 job. Married with young ones.

I have never really considered myself a creative person, and perhaps I'm wrong in this but feel that I have a lack of ability to recognize niche and innovative opportunities. I'm determined to train my mind to be open and able to recognize these things when they come across my path.

Example: I vividly remember a night when I was trying to plug my phone charger into the port on the bottom of my phone and remember saying to myself, "I wish they had chargers that were magnetic like the Apple laptops"... I plugged my phone in and never thought about doing anything else about it. Low and behold, it's been invented. And of course in hindsight, I'm disappointed in myself. I feel like I should have recognized that opportunity but the thought of solving that problem didn't even enter my mind! I wished someone else had done it! WTF!?!

My question is this: What can I do to help build my creative and innovative muscles? What books can you suggest that would maybe help open my eyes and help me train my brain so to speak?

Looking forward to the discussion!

Thank you,

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

I am glad that you have creative mindset. Based on my 4 years of observation in startup community. People encounters 4 major roadblocks in building / pursuing their startup dreams.

1) Idea for life - people who have very bright ideas but never act on executing it. Only to find out 6 mnonths later, someone else did the same thing. They ended up in regrets.

2) Wait for life - People who are creative yet they don't have time, talents, or funding. These ended up talking about their idea for life looking for co founders and investors.

3) Battered Founders - these were the doers and executioners of idea in startup industry but had failed. A good example are 3 person I met who spent 30K USD only to find out that no body wanted to use their ventures.

4) then the dreamers - they have so many ideas in mind and dream of being next facebook, but later in life they choose the dark side of going back 8am to 5pm.


What I suggest is just start now. and boot strap your idea, no need to spend much money, just do it now, validate your idea, and show them to the world.
At the end of the day success or failed, its fun anyway.

Startup is like building a "kite". whether it fly or not you have such fun building and launching it.

 

[danielhv]

Hi Daniel,

I am glad that you have creative mindset. Based on my 4 years of observation in startup community. People encounters 4 major roadblocks in building / pursuing their startup dreams.

1) Idea for life - people who have very bright ideas but never act on executing it. Only to find out 6 mnonths later, someone else did the same thing. They ended up in regrets.

2) Wait for life - People who are creative yet they don't have time, talents, or funding. These ended up talking about their idea for life looking for co founders and investors.

3) Battered Founders - these were the doers and executioners of idea in startup industry but had failed. A good example are 3 person I met who spent 30K USD only to find out that no body wanted to use their ventures.

4) then the dreamers - they have so many ideas in mind and dream of being next facebook, but later in life they choose the dark side of going back 8am to 5pm.


What I suggest is just start now. and boot strap your idea, no need to spend much money, just do it now, validate your idea, and show them to the world.
At the end of the day success or failed, its fun anyway.

Startup is like building a "kite". whether it fly or not you have such fun building and launching it.

That's the thing... I have zero ideas at this point. Or atleast none that I consider fastlane potential... but my wife and I ARE brainstorming daily.

My goal at the moment is to really try to develop and promote an innovative mentality. HOW do I learn & develop the ability to really think "outside the box"?

 

[Mattie]

I tried flying a revolution once, but not like this one. I think you just have to look around and see the opportunities. I grew up with these kites all the time, volley ball competitions, boat races, wine and beer tents, art shows, etc. I wasn't in the mindset either at the time. I just watched this guy today that invented a camera for sports. He loved surfing and found a need.

 

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[Perry Rico]

I tried flying a revolution once, but not like this one. I think you just have to look around and see the opportunities. I grew up with these kites all the time, volley ball competitions, boat races, wine and beer tents, art shows, etc. I wasn't in the mindset either at the time. I just watched this guy today that invented a camera for sports. He loved surfing and found a need.

Kite really inspired me alot to the point it became my logo of my startup. thanks for sharing the videos

 

[Mattie]

Kite really inspired me alot to the point it became my logo of my startup. thanks for sharing the videos

Yes, I loved watching the kites every year there. Although, I need to stop looking at these videos, cause I miss the beach. lol I love the drone shots.

 

[Gorilla]

The best book I can recommend to you is the book of life. Become a people watcher, observe your enviorment and everything within it. What is something that people need that they don't have yet? For instance your charger idea, You saw a flaw and figured out a way to fix it, you can do that now.

 

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[NVious]

Here you go:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ane-with-little-creativity.62653/#post-485088

 

[Five Star]

My question is this: What can I do to help build my creative and innovative muscles? What books can you suggest that would maybe help open my eyes and help me train my brain so to speak?

Welcome to the forum.

James Altucher talks about this a lot. I can recommend his book 'Choose Yourself' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/dp/B00CO8D3G4

Most of what he writes about is covered in his Blog though, if you don't mind searching about a bit. A quick Google search took me to this article of his, there are many more on his site:

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/10/how-to-become-an-idea-machine/