Innovatieve starters: 'Do you have what it takes?'

[Jeroen Bakker]

Auteur en docent John Nesheim heeft een erg boeiend weblog, waarop hij momenteel een serie artikelen heeft lopen die aan het denken zet. Perfect voor op Higherlevel.nl dus!

 

Creative startup people: Do you have what they have?

 

I am often questioned about creative startup people, so I've decided to discuss them in a series of blogs, who they are, how to spot them and what to do about them. The series should be about ten blogs in length, spread out over the next three weeks.

 

I decided begin with this question: "How creative are you?"

 

To help you answer that question, I'll list the traits of a creative person and let you compare yourself. I expect you to be surprised (I was).

 

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Trait number 1: "Creative individuals have a great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest."

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Physical energy plus quiet and rest is one set of so-called opposites that are the mark of creative people. Understanding this opens your mind to figuring out how to spot creative people for your startup and to understand them better. When you can create a culture attractive to creative people, you will have added a very powerful element to your unfair advantage.

 

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Trait number 2: "Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time."

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Brains are important, as is domain expertise. Focus that intelligence and you'll find results will follow quickly. Coming up with ideas ("brain-storming") is also part of the skill set needed to be a founder. Being naive is okay, it lets you examine the impossible, the un-see-able. Testing your business ideas on advisers and investors is wise: that increases your chances of making something great out of your creative idea. When you can be both smart and naive, you are well on your way to the creativity that adds power to a competitive advantage. Your objective is to make it an unfair advantage.

 

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Trait number 3: "Creative individuals combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility."

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Fun and work. Playfulness and discipline. These are signs of creative people. They are not all work nor all play. They do not put their lives on hold to do a startup. Instead, they treat a new enterprise as an adventure: combine unknowns with high risk, add buried treasure hard to find, and mix it with fun.

 

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Trait number 4: "Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and a rooted sense of reality at the other."

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There is a process for converting an idea into a world-class startup. Serial entrepreneurs have done it. I have written about it in my books. Venture community professionals know about it. So you can learn it. Then your fantasy will work with your reality and what will emerge is your startup. When you can master that process, you'll add an amazing power to building your unfair advantage.

 

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Nesheim schrijft diverse malen over het hebben en bouwen van je 'Unfair Advantage'. Niet verrassend is dat ook de titel van zijn boek, maar de gedachte erachter is ook op zijn blog te lezen.

[Jeroen Bakker]

Weer wat updates:

 

Trait number 5: "Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion."

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There is a mix of solo and communal in the creative person in startups. They are eager for times of isolation when focus on one thing is so important. Then they seek groups of others to communicate with. That is why working conditions are so key to great new enterprises.

 

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Trait number 6 volgt (denk ik) nog

 

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Trait number 7: "Creative people are androgynous and do not fit the mold of rigid gender stereotyping."

(Lees deze post)

 

Successful startup leaders are not stereotypes, but they are have a lot of extra feelings expressed in their special behavior.