Close-up concept image of the Garden of Ideas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Guest post by: Nikos Acuña
Millennials have a unique collaborative skillset. They are bright, eager, and are passionate about being successful. They are tech-savvy, creative, conscious about their health and the environment, and they are extremely social, often having many overlapping concentric circles. Some employers would criticize Gen-Y for not having enough focus to excel in careers that require tenacity and the discipline to see projects through to the end. This perspective perhaps comes from the assumption that millennials are unsure of their career path, so they tend to float around from job to job, lacking the stick-to-it-iveness that hardcore entrepreneurs need to be successful. But this is a false assumption.
Brazen Gen-Y careerists could actually make the diverse variety of their interests work for them. All they need to do is build a platform through which they can express their ideas, explore the enterprises that interest them, and collaborate with as many people as possible—which often leads to lucrative opportunities. Here are six ways millennials can leverage their skills while learning how to build something meaningful.
1. Assemble a List of Companies that Inspire You
Influence and imitation is the key to innovation. The key is to bring together ideas from your favorite brands, companies, and products. There’s a reason why these products help define your lifestyle and identity. What is it about these brands that move you in meaningful ways? If you could create a similar product to solve a problem what would it be? This doesn’t just apply to thinking up new business ideas, this also works for solving major business challenges. In his book Borrowing Brilliance: Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others, David Kord Murray posits that in order to create, first you have to copy. You can solve business challenges by utilizing solutions that have worked in other industries to approach similar problems. “You build your idea on a foundation of well-defined problems. Once defined, you borrow ideas from places with a comparable problem. You start close to home by borrowing from your competitors, then you venture farther by borrowing from other industries, and finally you travel outside of business and look for ideas with that problem in the scientific, entertainment, or artistic worlds,” Murray writes.
2. Write Up a Brand Vision
Got a list of the companies and brands that move you? Do you understand why these brands are meaningful to you? Then it’s time to think big. All big ideas have small beginnings. But it’s about getting you out of your head and getting these ideas on paper. Every great idea starts with a vision. More importantly, what you need the means to shape that vision. Shaping a vision starts with a rough draft. Don’t be afraid to put bad ideas on the table. Like the prolific author and marketer, Seth Godin writes—“You will never have good ideas if you can’t think of bad ones first.” But you have to put your fingers to work. Wireframe the website you always wanted to build. Draw and model the user experience from end to end. What are the goals of your project? Draft a business plan with rough notes. It’s okay if you don’t have every detail fleshed out yet. The details will come only after you give structure to your thoughts. The key is to externalize. Don’t keep your ideas in your head. You will find that all of your breakthrough ideas happen when you are working to get them out into the real world, and refine them through a process of iteration.
3. Step Away From it All
Brainstorming and externalizing ideas can be exhausting. Now is the time to leave room for your unconscious mind to do the work for you. Once you get away from the project at hand, you’ll be blessed with an idea while you’re relaxing or partying. Yes—it’s more than okay to enjoy yourself. Mix and mingle with friends. Catch a thought-provoking movie. Take a long walk. Work out. All of these activities increase the likelihood of you coming up with good ideas worth pursuing. According to Teresa Amabile in How to Kill Creativity, “Indeed, plodding through long dry spells of tedious experimentation increases the probability of truly creative breakthroughs. So, too, does a work of style that uses ‘incubation,’ the ability to set aside difficult problems temporarily, work on something else, and then return later with a fresh perspective.”
To be continued in Part 2…
Nikos Acuña has 15 years of experience in media, advertising and marketing. He specializes in building brands by architecting ideas through design thinking and strategic communications. He has worked on both the media and agency sides of the business across multiple verticals, traditional and new media channels and digital interactive technology platforms.
He is currently the SVP of operations and marketing at digitaladtech, a digital platform innovation company that connects brands and media companies with audiences in meaningful ways. He is also the Creative Director of Nioverse—a creativity, innovation, and design company.
Learn more at: http://mindsharebook.com/
[…] is part two of Nikos Acuña’s guest blog post. The previous three steps outlined in yesterday’s post […]
I don’t drop a comment, however I browsed some responses on How Gen-Y Can Ignite Their Creative Entrepreneurial Mojo: Part 1. I actually do have a couple of questions for you if you do not mind. Could it be only me or does it seem like a few of the remarks come across like they are left by brain dead people? 😛 And, if you are posting at additional sites, I would like to follow you. Could you make a list of every one of all your social sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?