Importance Of A Winning Idea

1876: “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” — William Orton, President of Western Union.

This is also the opening chapter of Secrets to a Successful Startup, but don’t worry this is not a rehash of a book. The topic is critical to what makes the difference between a ho-hum sort of company idea and what makes a company idea that fills you full of awe.

Let’s talk about awe for a moment. I love this picture:

That is what a winning idea feels like. When you have one the sense of majesty is almost overwhelming. If it doesn’t get you like that it isn’t yet the winning idea for you. Most people come up with an idea for a start-up based on something they are good at, or perhaps what they enjoy doing and are passionate about. That’s okay, but in that moment many start-ups are actually doomed. Why? Because awe comes from a problem/solution package. We don’t just get the idea, but we also instantaneously have the solution… we just have to put it into action. we feel a fluttering in the solar plexus, a bit of fear, a bit of excitement, a lot of OMG why the **** didn’t I think of that before?

Sure, there are examples of start-ups led by entrepreneurs passionate about their talent like Tory Burch who built her own fashion label after working for a number of top brands and disliking their generic approach, and Vera Wang who started her first fashion label after making her own wedding dress at age 40. Both women are billionaires. When they speak in interviews, however, they both are full of awe. They are in awe because they actually started their companies when something got under their skin. Neither was qualified to start a company. Neither had traditional fast-track career training. More often than not successful businesses are started by people who have little clue about what they are doing.

Most people start businesses based on something they like or are good at, but according to the 2016 US census only 4% of them make more than $50,000 a year in revenue. In fact, less than 1% of single-person companies , which the government classifies as non-employer businesses make more then $500,000. Keep in mind that most companies are not registered with the census so the actual number of single-person companies making less than 50K a year probably runs into the tens of millions.

This course is not for you if you would be satisfied with $50,000 a year in revenue. or even $500,000 a year. I’m talking about multi-million dollar winning ideas. I’m on my fourth right now. The previous three exited for around $300 million, which made a few of my investors even richer. I did okay out of it, but I don’t really think about the money. I reinvested most of it in my fourth company and we’ll see what comes of it.

Does talking about money make you uncomfortable? It does most people. Later in the course we’ll talk about it openly and we’ll also discuss what financial independence is and is not. We’ll also talk about preparing for success so that you can start to raise your beliefs and expectations from the low numbers to the millions and feel at home talking about that. That’s the essence of Secrets of a Successful Startup; we work on our mentality at the same time we work on their idea and building the business out.

This course and community are about creating companies that disrupt the world and make major impacts in the lives of others. That means the idea must be a winning one. It must be unique, but most people I meet come up short when it comes to creating original ideas.

Sixteen years ago I decided it was time to be my own boss. I went through a similar thought process. I considered what I enjoyed doing and what I was especially good at. I had to admit, however, when I analyzed my life honestly I was not very skilled at anything. It came as a bit of a shock to realize that I had no talent, but that revelation is probably what saved me from joining the millions of failed start-ups making less than 50,000 a year. Without any identifiable talent, I certainly needed a winning idea.

There are always two things you can do when confronted with a problem. You can either struggle to solve it alone, or you can find other people who faced similar issues, and then mirror what they did to crack the problem. I was getting nowhere with the first approach.

Mirroring is something we all do without thinking about it.

The importance of our mirror neurons

In humans and primate species there are neurons called Mirror Neurons. These brain cells activate when we observe someone doing something. For example, when a chimpanzee sees its mother opening a nut with a rock and then tries to imitate her with another nut. Mirror neurons are related with empathic, social and imitations behavior. They are a fundamental tool for learning. This is very important information for the entrepreneur. We can learn much simply by observing other entrepreneurs.

In the 90’s a group of neuroscientists, directed by Giacomo Rizzolatti from the University of Parma (Italy), discovered something surprising. A hundred group of neurons in the brain primates were activated not only when the monkey was doing something but also when the monkey saw another one doing that same action.

From birth these group of neurons are active and it allows us to learn to eat, dress, speak… Mirror neurons are also important in planning our actions as well as understanding intentions behind actions. You see where this is going…

Mirror neurons allow us to learn through imitation. They enable us to reflect body language, facial expressions, and emotions. Mirror neurons play an essential part in our social life. They are key for development as well as relationships and education.

Mirror neurons are responsible for yawning when we see someone else yawn.

These neurons also act when we see someone sad or crying and in turn feel sad.

The same thing happens with smiling or laughing. The way laughter can be contagious.

Studies suggest that there is an activation of the anterior insula when we see someone expressing disgust.

Another study shows that the somatosensory cortex is activated when we see someone touching another person the same way it activates when we are the ones being touched.

Mirror neurons allow us to literally feel what others are feeling and “live” their emotions because the neurons are based on empathy. Empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation.

There are many ways to take advantage of mirror neurons. We can observe others and learn without having to repeat the whole experience. We can also read the biographies of the successful men and women throughout history. As we read, we imagine them and their experiences. The brain can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, so we benefit from everything we read.

Since I was about fourteen, I have voraciously read biographies, not just of entrepreneurs, but also leaders, adventurers, and entertainers. I believe I assimilated those experiences in my mirror neurons without really knowing it back then.  By the time I was sixteen, my father jokingly called me a font of useless information because I knew so much about so many things. My siblings started calling me a know it all and still do. Frequently, people comment on how much I seem to know about so many varied topics. The truth is I simply assimilated information by reading biographies as well as scientific texts. One can’t help read biographies and not become a font of knowledge.

Later in the course we’ll look at the habits of the successful and wealthy. Reading biographies is one very common trait from Warren Buffet to Richard Branson.

My point? When reading so many life stories patterns of behavior start to emerge and it became obvious to me that the successful entrepreneurs didn’t start out trying to be one. What made then entrepreneurs was simply that they got upset about something and set about fixing it.

What makes a winning idea is not what you want to do,
but what you want to change.

Henry Ford grew up on a farm, and then he was an engineer working at the Edison Illuminating Company. Madam C.J. Walker was born to slaves in the cotton fields of the south. She was promoted to the washtub and then to the cook’s kitchen. Branson was a dyslexic high school dropout with poor academic results who wrote a student magazine. None of them set out to be entrepreneurs because their priority at the time was simply surviving in a tough environment. They became entrepreneurs because they saw something that needed fixing and then decided to remedy it.

In Ford’s case it was to make cars that could free the common man to travel, when the burgeoning industry of the time saw the car as a rich man’s privilege only. That made him mad.

In Walker’s case it was because her hair kept falling out due to malnutrition and stress. All the ‘old wives’ concoctions she used failed to help, and some caused her harm. She got mad about it and set about fixing the problem by creating her own hair tonics. She created one that worked. Others asked her to make some hair tonic for them. She saw a needy group of locals and started selling door to door.

Her story is one of my favorites. She is one of my heroines, and I really wish I could have met her. She was the wrong color in a racist culture. She was the wrong sex in an oppressive male-dominated society. She was the wrong class in an economy segregated by class. Her talent was cleaning. Yet, she got mad about the dangerous hair tonics being sold by traveling salesmen, fixed the problem, and she became America’s first, female, self-made millionaire and against almost unthinkable odds.

We should pause to let that sink in. No matter what your circumstances I doubt you have as many hurdles to overcome. The world in which Madame C.J. Walker grew up was against her, hated her ambition, hated the color of her skin, oppressed her because she was an ‘inferior female, wanted to put her down, ignore her, maybe even eliminate her. She was treated like a disease and yet she succeeded against all odds as a poor black woman in a white, male, elitist society. What kind of power is that? That is awe. That got my mirror neurons really agitated.

What happened, however, was that they both experienced something that made them so hopping mad they set about changing it. That is from where winning ideas come.

What Made Me Mad

Ok so if you have read my books you know this bit but I’ll repeat it anyway. I started to review those areas of my life where things made me mad. There were many things, but one in particular made my blood boil. For years I had been frustrated that my company had created a product that could successfully treat a rare disease, but then spent no money on making physicians and patients aware that a solution existed. It sounds callous, but it is typical of a lot of businesses. When we were small and private we could make scientific and patient-focused decisions. When we became successful, and went public, we had to answer to shareholders. People who buy shares want to see profits and dividends and don’t have much tolerance for what they see as risky or charitable strategies.

The company estimated that there were less than 200 people in the world suffering from the rare disease. The cost of making all physicians aware of both the issue and the solution was considered exorbitant compared to the potential return from sales. Three times I proposed business plans to justify an investment, and three times I was rejected and warned to focus on selling our other products. Yes, it made me mad.

My idea was born. I had never started a company before or raised finances, and I knew very little about the research and development side of a business, but the unfairness of the situation for patients suffering from the disease provided me with the motivation to want to do something about it.

Necessity can be the Mother of Invention

When we dream of becoming a successful business owner, our imaginations are filled with the logos of companies like Google, Amazon, Alibaba, 360Buy, Zynga, and Virgin that typify the modern “get-big-fast,” business model. We know those great rags to riches tales, and we want it for ourselves.

The reality for most people, however, is somewhat different and the reason is simple. Start-up ideas abound, but winning ideas are rare. A moment of insight is worth a lifetime of experience.

So, if you are a budding entrepreneur who wants to start-up something based on what you enjoy, think again. Sure, if you want a small living to replace your boring day job then doing what thousands of others already do will likely achieve that.

If you want, however, a multi-million dollar success you need to change the way you think and come up with a moment of insight. If you have already started a company based on what you are talented at, and it is plodding along, now is the time to rethink your idea.

Start by Taking Note of What Makes you Mad.

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