Do a short experiment with me will you?
Today’s post is by Michael Figueroa and Account Manager at SafeSourcing.
Take a sheet of paper, and spend the next 5 minutes planning out your virtual dream business. It can be a coffee shop, hotel, restaurant, bank, whatever. Plan out the fun stuff like how it will look, what kind of theme it will have, what kind of amenities you’ll provide, what kind of things your customers will rave about when they see how well you do them. Don’t spend too much time thinking about the details of the lease agreement…
Is your 5 minutes up? Alright, with your business draft in hand, I want you to take your brilliant idea, tear it up, and throw it away. Yes, seriously.
Did you hesitate because you felt attached to your idea? Did you resent losing those 5 minutes, and want to hang on to your idea simply because your time is valuable? Did you genuinely like some of your ideas and feel they should be kept around? Those reactions are NORMAL. Not all of us will feel that way, but most of us tend to hang on to the idea’s we have generated or invested any amount of time into. But ask yourself a follow-up question:
If I don’t want to let go of an idea I spent 5 minutes on, what other ideas am I hanging on to for no other reason than because of what I invested into them? Do I have projects that should be let go of, but that I spent so much time on that I don’t want to abandon it? Do I have relationships with customers or suppliers that I’ve had for years that are killing my bottom line? Am I stuck in a comfort zone?
A well-known mantra of the Stanford Design School is “nothing is precious”. Because creative types know better than anybody, that getting over-committed to an idea can be toxic to innovation. The innovation process is not routinized and committed, it’s evolving and uninhibited. Having a “nothing is precious” mindset means not being afraid to fail-forward by abandoning attachment to pet ideas.
SafeSourcing’s part in this process is to find you the business relationships that make the most business sense. Let us help you get out of the rut of “we’ve always done it this way” thinking.
Why not contact SafeSourcing and see how we might help you fail forward.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
