Two Ingredients all Entrepreneurs must Possess to be Successful

Curiosity and creativity are like two peas in a pod; both are the essential ingredient for the success of any entrepreneur. Simply putting it, you want to know more when you are curious. You try to find reasons and then eventually, you create something new which was never thought of, something which could be there and lying in plain sight.

“Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why” – Bernard Baruch

When you have that inquisitiveness to question; why this? Why not? What if? You open up innovative ways to market yourself, your product and finding out ways to provide new and better services to the customers.

Entrepreneurs Need To be Curious

Shubham Banerjee thought what if we create a Braille machine (for the blind and disadvantaged people) lighter and economical. At 13 years old, this student from California developed the Braille printer using Lego toys and created Braigo (Braille with Lego). This Braigo costs around $350 as compared to $2000 machines in the market and is much lighter.

At just 13 years of age, he was curious. This Braille machine was already there, but Shubham thought why not create it better.

Carl Elsener, the inventor of the Swiss army knives, believed in the motto – good things can always be made better.

Curiosity comes with expanding your mind to everything around you. It is the mindset which matters for the growth of curiosity, being passionate about inquiry and learning. You need to have a mindset open to good, bad all types of friction around you, to help you analyze the best out of all.

Curiosity is like a Eureka moment which can come anytime and anywhere. You just need to have the right kind of mindset for it.

• Questioning: You need to question everything around you. Asking questions inspires learning and with learning you gain experience.
• Proper planning: You should have a clear plan of your goal ahead of you. A goal without a plan is just a wish.
• Being impatient: You cannot just be calm with an idea, you need to have that sense of restlessness as there is no end to learning or being curious.
• Experimenting: Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before creating the functioning bulb. You need to rise and learn from your mistakes and keep experimenting, not to be afraid of failures.
• Passion: The sense of zeal should always be alive in you.
• Accept and pursue the things you do not know: Admitting you do not know everything and making sure you learn and gain knowledge.
• Listen: This skill is important as it helps you know what people feel, want and share.
• Communicate: You need to have a clear conversation skill to help people understand what you want out of them or for them.
• Taking a risk: If Neil Armstrong declined to go to the Moon stating it is dangerous and he could die there, he would have never become the first man to set foot on the Moon. The risk with experimenting is inevitable. You have to take your chances and go for the big bite.

Entrepreneurs Need To be Creative:

As you become more curious by asking questions and learning, it opens your mind to creativity. Successful people try to join the dots between whys and the outcomes. Creativity cannot be restrained. It is a thought process which is ever ending and cannot be contained.

Thinking can be in two modes – Convergent and Divergent. Convergent thinking is strictly analytical and focuses on arriving at one result with the available resources, whereas divergent thinking encourages creative ideas by exploring many solutions for the same problem. It is best to have a blend of both these modes.

An entrepreneur needs to be innovative to differentiate himself to those of others; you need to have that continuous sense of effort to have a creative and innovative approach while devising any idea or product. Creativity helps create competitive advantage. Creativity means to think the unthinkable and simple out of the box. It helps us to think of new ways how to improve our business, what else can you provide to the customer, what better and different you can create.

How to boost up your creative child inside you let’s look at some points:

• Creativity can be learned: You can learn new skills and take part in various creative projects.
• Keeping track: Ideas can come up anytime, make a note of everything that comes across your mind anytime and anywhere.
• Take breaks: Do not over burden yourself and pressurize your brain into thinking too much, take a break, go out, observe and set yourself free.
• Meet people: Meet new people, colleague’s friends, families and listen to them share with your ideas and take their feedback.
• Creativity happens with collision: Big brands and companies mix to create something new and better, try to mix ideas with that of your counterpart and think of the new
• Scribble, doodle and create art with anything.
• Paying attention: Any idea no matter how powerful can be broken down without proper thoughts gone in their implementation.
• Moving on: You cannot be just stuck up with one idea for the rest of your life, you need to let go and move on with something new and better.

As an entrepreneur, you cannot restrict yourself to existing ideas and products; you just need to break the monotony. You have to think different and be filled with curiosity and let your imagination do all the work.

You will have many twists and turns in your way. People will think crazy about you, but this world will not differ with the person who is reasonable and goes with the flow. It will witness change by the one who is rebellious and wants change.

Leo Burnett, an advertising executive, says:

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”