Who's the entrepreneur inside?

We're all starters, initiators, instigators and creators. 

We do this stuff everyday! We start a new day, we come up with an idea or a solution, we work on things, projects and pieces of work, and we find ingenious ways to hack things and get stuff done. 

It's just that we don't often acknowledge to ourselves that we can have a great idea or a potential solution. 

Those seeds of doubts have deep roots indeed!

It's doubt that I've seen and heard more than any other response from the business owners, leaders and individuals I've mentored throughout this year. They've doubted they could do or achieve or deliver or launch or write or produce.

And yes, doubt lives in me too. 

Doubt is a great disabler. It can slow things down, distract us and take us off course - whatever that course is meant to be. 

Doubt will eat at that cool idea you've had bubbling away and doubt will stop you from thinking you can do something about it. 

But we are all entrepreneurial in one way or another. 

We all have the potential to start something new today, or tomorrow, and just have a go at it. It need not be the billion dollar business that sets us up for the rest of our lives... but who knows, it could be. 

As the pressure rises and falls over the coming weeks, find some moments to wonder to yourself, just wonder.... 'who's the entrepreneur inside?'

What could you start?

What could you launch?

What could you instigate, create or bring forth?

What have you wondered about... whether it might be worth having a 'go' at it?

Do it now. Start something, you entrepreneur you!

Fire up the BBQ - it's ideas time

It's summer in Australia; there's sunshine, beaches, cool drinks and plenty of barbeques to be had. Before you put anything on the BBQ, turn it on, heat it up and prime it, ready for the tasty treats to be grilled and flamed... beyond recognition!

Priming the BBQ is like getting people ready for doing good work, producing tasty treats and creating great stuff. 

Too often we expect things from people when they're 'cold', as in "come up with some ideas on ..." or "tell me what you think about ...'

We've all got lots on our mind; give people time to get up to speed and be focused on what you're asking. 

You need to warm people up, prime them and create the environment so they'll deliver, and cook up some goodness. 

I think there are four stages or elements to priming people to come up with ideas or respond to your request:

1. environment - creating the right space so it's possible to think creatively and generatively;

2. mindset - framing why we're doing this ideas thing and how it will be used;

3. process - setting up the stages of the idea generation and gathering; what will happen now, next; and

4. acknowledge - reward and recognise early contributors, all participation and the success and progress being made. 

And then when it's done, finish it. Shut it done and stop.

Then move on to the next thing.

Fire them up, prime them and frame it so you will all get to taste the great stuff created. And you'll want to come back for seconds! 

Toying with an idea

The news was all so serious today - it usually is. And I don't find that to be an inspiring way to 'get creative' and 'be innovative' when I'm working on the thinking in my business. 

So I change the way I'm thinking and I "toy with an idea". 

Toying means to be casual and less serious about something. You see kids doing it so much more often than adults do. 

To get casual and less serious, I have a look around my desk and office and I go from there...

Looking around, close at hand I can see:

• a china cow money box with a Happy New Year headband on;
• a stuffed toy goat hand-puppet that sings tunes from The Sound of Music;
• a small bongo drum I picked up at a conference event;
• a pair of my dad's thick rimmed 1950's glasses with the lenses pushed out;
• a pen with a helicopter on top of it;
• a furry pencil case;
• three juggling bean bags;  

... and on and on. This is not a tidy, neat, everything in it's particular place office.

I have props and cues and creative things that help me toy with ideas. I might take my hands off the keyboard and pick up something, wander around, talk out loud, see something outside, get an idea, write it down, or put two or more of the toys together - kaboom!

Your best creative thinking isn't likely to come staring at this screen. Touch something else and have play, a walk, a think, a talk, and be less casual, less serious. All work with no toy makes the sandpit a big yawn!