Start-up founders were asked the following question on a popular online forum: “What does it feel like to be the CEO of a start-up?”. There were many replies to this question from start-up founders and owners with a lot of them saying how difficult it was to “turn it off”, to create a vision, a culture, to find the right people and to get enough sleep.
One entrepreneur said that you learn to do what you need to do when you get punched in the face many, many times. You also learn, said the entrepreneur, that you are bad at many things, lucky if you’re good at a handful and the only thing you can ever be great at is being yourself “which is why you can never compromise it”.
Another start-up founders said it was like joining a Jalapeno eating contest… with one bite “you’re burning with that hot idea and your head feels like bursting”. “But then, the only way to win is to eat more, until your body and mind adapts to the heat.”
Yet other entrepreneurs were quick to point out that if your team is having fun, you can always laugh that you won’t die. In fact, you will learn to “love the journey and look forward to what you do every day even in the lowest times”.
One entrepreneur said that there is nothing more exciting or rewarding than pulling together a great group of people, dedicated to the same goal and declaring that you are going to build, sell and implement something great that will change the world and then going out and doing it against all odds.
I think this last comment hints at an important part of growing an entrepreneurial businesses. Among the many qualities needed, you still require a process or system to grow your hot idea from conception creation into a product or service so that you have a clear pathway. This doesn’t mean that you are going to always know where you are going. There might be times we knew zig and zag and feel like a head-less chicken running in all directions but actually getting no where in particular.
The one system that I was recently introduced to on an entrepreneurship course was the CDIO system for entrepreneurship. What this basically means is a system where you think of coming up with a hot new idea from conception, and development to implementation. CDIO stands for, conceive, design, implement and operate. The CDIO framework has its origin in engineering but is relevant for any sort of project or process. It doesn’t really matter whether you are planning to cook a meal, introduce a project to help the community with a feeding scheme or come up with a new solution that creates value for a group of potential customers. All these activities have common elements: you need to come up with an idea or concept, design it, implement it and turn it into a viable, ongoing process.
Just as the development of an idea into a viable product or service requires a system so does the process of idea generation require a framework and system. Several systems for generating in evaluating ideas have been developed over the past hundred or more years and a careful study of those that work best can reward anyone who wants to come up with viable business ideas and turn them into possible income generating products and services.
In my upcoming book “Breakthrough Ideas” I reveal a sure-fire process for you to come up with ideas, evaluate them and develop them so that you can reduce the risks associated with new business ideas. If you would like a copy, send me an email with the title of the book, your mailing address and whether or not you want a copy signed. It’s still a long way off from full production but I’ll send you an email when it’s ready.
