design

1. Don’t plan!
Unless you’ve got some sort of marketing or concept design deadline coming up you really needn’t have a schedule for coming up with a new and awesome idea. Setting aside time for being creative is like choosing someone to fall in love with. It’s senseless and it’s going to require that you put in a lot of effort, creativity is an art, not a job; it’s something that is fun, keep it in that motion. Some ideas come to you when you least expect them to. Whether you’re in marketing, food, real estate or clothing (especially clothing) you should keep an open mind, don’t pre meditate the process of conceiving an idea. Your mind is well oriented to come up with an idea, and if you try and push yourself you might come up with something, but remember it’s not about coming up with an idea, it’s about coming with a great idea, just put it into your mind that you want it to come up with something new, it has the capacity to take it from there, you’ll be amazed. Have a little fun with it, quit formality, you’re only going to run around in circles, you don’t want that.
2. don’t be one directed
Focusing on one thing is something to avoid. Do not keep your mind locked on a single path, that’s mind kidnapping (or better yet; mind-napping, hey this book never promised to be grammatically correct). That’s a crime against your own self. Being creative means viewing your world from all angles and innovating it, that doesn’t come in a single model creation. If, for example, you are designing a webpage you should consider a new slogan, new logo and ways of distribution. Lose yourself within the belief that you have the absolute potential to master all trades and you’re on top of every category. You can have a single one good idea or you can a chain of amazing ideas. Try a little bit of everything. You might do anything or you can do everything! The sky is not the limit for you in anything. One of the most important things to remember in the process of trying to come up with an idea, a brilliant one, is that you needn’t be too serious about it, it’s not rocket science!
“I want to put a ding in the universe.” Steve Jobs. Co-founder Apple Inc.
3. be motivated
You want to leave a mark, whether it’s someone you want to impress or you want to leave the entire world shaken, you have to have something pushing you on. Even better; a role model, someone to look up to, or someone you want to be like in your respective field. And for those of us who have financial motives, yes, cash is king. Creating something for monetary purposes is the ultimate motivation. Cash is what makes people do un-foreseen things, even to themselves, lucky for you, you aren’t doing anything illegal. Right? Once you have got a motivation there aren’t really many obstacles you aren’t equipped to face, and administer a defeat to. And really there isn’t much reason for you to feel unmotivated as such. The worst thing that has to happen is if you get distracted with something else. But your idea, at all times, should, in its self, without fail, be one of your key motivations. Just see yourself at the top of the world, your idea is your child at its founding stages and your financer at a later stage, so you need to think of it in that sense.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life…” Steve Jobs. Co-founder Apple Inc.
4. dream impossibility within possibility
Be a realistic dreamer. Don’t be too dreamy now. The whole point is to create something, not to become the emperor of the world, so to avoid any future disappointment make sure that your idea and its implementation are within reach, not necessarily yours at that point in time but whatever you do; be truthful to yourself. Also, while at it, set a success measurement method, so that when you get there, you have a methodical way of knowing it.
“it often seems impossible until it is done” Dr Nelson Mandela.
5. consult
The whole point of this critical stage, which really is a turning point, is to where you question your idea. How far it can go, how big it can get or if it will get anywhere. So this is where you talk to someone and make a decision whether it has got potential, should you carry on or have you been wasting your time all along. But you should be careful who you seek consultation from, the last thing you need is a cynical or even worse, a bunch of them. At this critical moment you don’t want to make a bad decision, one being; killing something with enormous potential, enough potential to make a difference to the world because someone told you so, I’m sorry but that’s just pathetic and being cruel to yourself, the other being so attached to something that has no hope for the future that you miss other great opportunities.
And if you’re going to consult with someone on an informal level you want them it to be someone objective, so amongst your associates choose the most honest and unbiased. You may also want it be talked about just to see how a wide audience will react to it.
“so when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know…explore things” – Steve Jobs.
6. Listen
Shut up; and you may be surprised by the things you’re bound to learn from the every-day-conversation format if you decide to nudge it to the topic of innovation and creativity. Take inspiration from the people around you, listen to their opinions of everything and plan to either enhance or revolutionise their standards as well as their thinking. The so called ‘normal’ people are the most intelligent and most creative, they run the world and the best part is that they are easy to reach, and their services are affordable and they do no charge commission or consultation fees.
Use the people around you and more especially their intellect as resources towards a more creative and constructive persona within. So engage in conversation or just observe the simplest convo, be quite, you might just learn something, new facts, new opinions, basically a new way of thinking and channelling those creative juices and getting with the next big thing!
7.Protect
What’s worse than seeing your ex-lover(the one who dumped you last weekend) with someone else? Probably seeing your beloved crush with another dude/woman. You have to see things that way. The idea that you’ve got, you have to register it legally and the textual, graphic or any other form of material that represents or complements it. You don’t want to look like an idiot screaming “that was my idea (sniff, sniff) I came up with that”, without any piece of paper to PROVE. The courts believe in proof, especially when words appear on paper stating that you came up with stuff. So get on with your lawyer and get those formalities out of the way. Another thing is that you must be careful of who you show, even within your team. And there has to be a clause in their contracts that covers you in case of an espionage (when someone practically stalks you, not because they want you to cuddle with them, bet because they want your idea. Scary!). The process of copyrighting a creative work, depending on where you live and the system around that, shouldn’t take longer than a few weeks.
8. Finish up!
Ok so you may experience some portions of discourage. But you have to keep going. You have to install it, both to your physiological hard-drive and to your brain (that brownish-whitish stuff inside your head that records things and reminds later on) that you have to complete everything you initiate, finish what you start. No matter what. A smart guy once said to me “people who are surrenders will always blame the circumstances around them for their failures”. I believed him and I was impressed by the truth within this man’s philosophy. Whenever you are faced with adversity your will has to carry you through, if you feel discouraged go back to one of the other sections in this book, just don’t ever give up, that’s walking away from something that you invested a lot of strength and time into, that is walking away from something that you deserve and that’s the coward’s way of dealing with situations of discourage and demotivation. It might not be easy or it may not be ‘fun’ anymore, but IT IS WORTH IT! So whatever it is that your idea is all about, finish it up, bring in someone to help you out if you need to, there’s no shame in asking for assistance, that’s what family, friends and consultants are there for, the new project member, if you decide to bring him/her in, should be someone that is going to breathe new life into the production. Bottom line in this paragraph as in life is: Finishing up things is what sets apart winners from losers!
“I’ll do it over the weekend”-Bill Gates, Co-founder & Non-Executive Chairman, Microsoft Corporation.
10. Implement
Ok, breathe! In, out, in, out. Done! Now get on the phone and in front of your computer screen, you’re going to call a lot of people, you’re going to e-mail a lot of folks, you’re going to not sleep, and you’re going to wake a lot of individuals, especially the ones who actually sleep at night.
You have your work cut out for you, but if you were looking for an easy way to make money you should have sold some of your late Grandma’s antiques on one of those online auctions or something. You’re bringing your vision to life, like flying a baby pigeon, setting it free and letting it unleash its inner power, majestic stuff. You need to get out there in a big way, one that is going to get your product noticed, make you a ‘hit’, make you ‘it’ and within a short space of time make you and your product household names. You need the best to put you out there: Marketing, product management and a specialized group monitoring the popularity of the product, this idea of ours. Also you’re going to need money, if you’re covered (got money somewhere in your accounts put aside for this sort of thing) good for you, if you’re not then let’s get borrowing and let’s start pitching (fun stuff).
Here’s the basic run of things in the simplest way I’ve ever heard to pitching to investors, the investor wants to know the following:
(1). The project, give them as much info in the cleanest way and in a brief space of time about the project, show them that you have the passion and you’re dedicated, this indicates to them that you take what you do seriously and it’s smart to invest on a project that is prioritised.
(2). The management, tell him/her/them how the growth of the product will be managed in terms of marketing, it’s important that they know because they are risking a lot of money investing in you so it’s wise to inform them that you’re going to ensure that they get their money back and who is going to be responsible for that. In basic wording they want to know how much skill is in the team.
(3). The financing, tell them as much details when it comes to costing. To the last cent, but whenever pitching to an investor never should it be brought up or suggested that some of the money is going to go into your personal expenses, people who want money get jobs, you know that.
(4). TIME-FRAME tell him how long it’s going to be until they have all their money back, don’t be ambiguous, be to the point and be specific, show them that you’re a businessman/woman fully capable of calculating time-money related factors.
If need be, as time goes by the product needs some modification, then so be it, as your market grows, so should your brand and entire look, offer the same things in a different way or offer new things in the same culture or both.
11. Relax, take it easy
Child you’ve earned your big break. Pop in to the office on an irregular basis. Be on the loop and if need be, sleep! You did a lot of work, put in a lot of hours, took a small idea turned it into a project, turned the project and turned it into an enterprise, well done. Be careful now, you’re going to be handling large amounts of money, first priority should be that the investors (remember them?) get all the money owed to them back in full. Also, money should be handled with someone who knows how, don’t hesitate seeking the help of a financial advisor or expect and for the first year or more, around 50% of the turnovers are dedicated to the development of this company of ours and pay your team good sums of money, you want to have a happy, motivated team to keep the company running. And speaking of that, insure the company, take out insurance policies and protect all assets including documentation. Keep backup copies of all documents some 100+ miles away. Accidents happen. Now that all that is taken care of, let’s get out and get a life.

This is dedicated to all those who, quite like myself are working in the department of coming up with new and innovative things. This one is for all those who are going to read it, learn something, relate and consider using some of the tactics suggested. Remember the business world is about different strategies what works for me, may not for you, but I’m just glad you checked out my book. Thanks.

Author: Bhaso Ndzendze

develop

deploy

dominate.

Impressum

Texte: all textual content in this work is property of Bhaso Ndzendze and permission is required before publishing them.
Bildmaterialien: content in this book is property of Bhaso Ndzendze and permission is required before publishing them
Übersetzung: desing. develop. deploy. dominate.
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.03.2013

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