7 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs: Habit 1 - "Be Creative"

Entrepreneurship is hard. It is possible only for those who stick to the path and never give up. The question that follows is what gives the successful entrepreneurs the tenacity required for success? Is it that because they are seduced by those potential billions of dollars that they may get in future? Or is it something much deeper and fundamental to their identity? While researching an answer to these questions, I read hundreds of blogs and watched equal number of videos. For some blogs and videos, I read a list of entrepreneur attributes and for others I saw a pattern in entrepreneurial behaviour but could not find a succinct way to articulate my research. Much to my surprise, I found an eloquent articulation in some Sanskrit texts. Based on my research and some experience, I have identified 7 principles that an aspiring entrepreneur needs to absorb until they become habits. For some entrepreneurs these habits could be natural and for others, these habits can be inculcated. In my blog, I will discuss the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs.

For brevity, I will discuss only one habit in each blog post.

Habit 1: Be Creative

To be a successful entrepreneur, one should have an unlimited amount of Creativity Quotient (CQ). Steve Jobs, the best example of creativity that all can relate to, said in his 2005 Stanford Commencement address:

(Modified from www.desktopaper.com)

I have read and heard the above sentence repeated through videos, blogs etc. However, I could never put this in a scientific framework [sorry but my PhD training (or conditioning?) that compels me to formulate everything into a set of principles :-)]. In mathematical terms, I was searching for a framework that will increase one's "CQ". Herewith, I will share with you two of my findings that helped me to understand creativity and provide a conceptual framework that one can adopt to augment one's creativity:

Recently, I read a publication from Saras Sarasvathy from Darden Business School, University of Virginia, (Please click here for the original publication) in which she gave a very interesting explanation on the various types of creativity. Based on her research, she has categorized creativity into three types - managerial, strategic and entrepreneurial. Please see below a figure from her publication:

(Sarasvathy Saras, Darden Business School, University of Virginia. Please click here for the original publication)

Usually in our education or jobs, we are encouraged for managerial or strategic creativity. Managerial creativity involves using a set number of means (e.g. M1 to M5) to meet the company goal. Strategic creativity builds on it to use more number of means (e.g. M1 to Mn) to reach the goal. The goal can be for individual performance, delivering a new product, increasing sales or profit margin etc. In any case, the goal is pre-defined. One has to use existing internal and external resources to meet the goal faster, cheaper and/or better. 

In contrast, entrepreneurial creativity is totally different. It is about connecting the dots (or means) to come up with something brand new. For example, all of the Apple products the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad -  all of these were about connecting the dots or inventions/technology available at the time and imagining the next-generation product. It was believing that these dots could be connected and not allowing our critical/analytical reasoning to jeopardize our creative thought.

However, all of us cannot be Steve Jobs! (and we should never forget that!) While Sarasvathy's publication above explained to me what is entrepreneurial creativity, I still did not have a conceptual framework on how could one increase the CQ. I was researching whether creativity could be made into a scientific process i.e. it has to repeatable and accessible to everyone. Finally, I found an answer in the following interesting creativity model from Prof. Tina Seelig at Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. While all of her videos are awesome, if you are very busy then I would highly recommend the readers to watch at least this, this and this. 

To summarize, what I call it as the Seelig Creativity Model: 

(Reproduced with permission from Tina Seelig. 
Image from her book: inGenius - A Crash Course in Creativity)

Seelig says creativity is the "innovation engine". According to her model, at the inside of this engine is us with our attitude, knowledge and imagination and on the outside are our resources, culture and habitat. These six components are integrated like a Möbius strip and all components are interdependent. The beauty of this model is - one can start anywhere and yet unleash one's creativity to the fullest. (please check her videos to know more about her creativity model). Based on this model, one can identify what are the current external and internal resources (i.e. what is) and put a conscious effort in change them to suit the goal (i.e. what ought to be). For instance, one could identify one's knowledge about entrepreneurship and improve it by educating oneself through various online resources. Once the knowledge is improved, it will trigger our imagination and affect how we see opportunities (thus changing our attitude). We will then seek out the required habitat or network to realize the business idea. Associating with entrepreneurial network will further affect our culture. Similarly, one could start at any point in the model and realize how all the above dimensions are interdependent. The more you iterate and apply this model, the more creative you will be!

Finally, habit of creativity is not only useful for entrepreneurs but for everyone! So just to tickle your imagination, what can you do with 500 post-its???

Submit your comments/videos/pictures!