

How to overcome "Entrepreneur's block" - niico
http://www.nico.im/post/26631664931/how-to-overcome-entrepreneurs-block

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reubenpressman
This article is ridiculous..

1st There is no such thing as 'non-creatives'. Everyone is creative, it's how
they are, not how much they are.

2nd Coming up with ideas without a problem is the biggest problem with
startups, designers, and creatives everywhere. It's a big reason why they fail
and aren't sure why, and it wastes time and energy. The reason you and others
can't or have a hard time coming up with ideas is because YOU DONT HAVE A
PROBLEM!

3rd There is a formula for creativity: C=fa(K _I_ E) Creativity = the function
of an Attitude x Knowledge x Imagination x ability to Evaluate.

4th The best problems come from experiences, so being curious (to increase
your knowledge) and doing things you have never done, not like ping-pong
(although I do enjoy it) nor walks on the beach, help you find new problems
and actually feel and understand them.

5th Once you have these problems, ask why at least 5 times and make sure you
have the real problem. The worst scenario is trying to solve the wrong
problem, which also leads to lots of failed (and learned from) solutions.

6th Once you feel like you really have the right problem, begin solving it
(now it's time for IDEAS). Write your problem down, and DIVERGE!!! This means
that instead of coming up with an idea, talking about it, deciding on it, then
moving onto the next one, you should DIVERGE and come up with as many possible
solutions as you can, without thinking about whether they are good or bad. If
you are by yourself, its called ideating, if you're with others it's
brainstorming. Either way DEFER JUDGEMENT. Turn your filter off until later,
on your own ideas, and others'. Write everything down. You can judge them all
later (converging).

7th It helps to practice diverging and creativity, it's like working out. The
parts in your brain that help you come up with solve problems/come up with
ideas get better at it te more you do it. You can practice on problems like:
what might be all the uses for a brick, or all the ways you might change a
bathtub, or all of the uses for 10,000 left handed gloves.

8th Know that per problem, if you truly want to solve it, you will spend at
least an hour just diverging. Understand that it (on average) takes over 30
minutes to get past those "low-hanging fruit" ideas and get to the good ones,
thats the time where you're like "I can't come up with any more". If you keep
pushing through you will!

A few tools/rules for diverging: 1\. Defer Judgement (on your ideas, and
others) 2\. Build on Ideas (and let others build on you) 3\. Wild and Crazy is
OK (my favorite, GO CRAZY on solutions. It's always easier to take a crazy
idea and make it more realistic, than it is a simple idea and make it
crazier/better) 4\. Quantity = Quality (the more ideas you have, the better
ideas you will have after converging, ie 10 ideas you might have one good one,
100 ideas you will definitely have at least 10 good ones)

I'm new at this, and the people I have learned from and those they learned
from do much crazier things than I do, and here's an example of something I
have run and how these tools can help: I've worked with people that had 7
ideas in an hour, and the next hour I helped them (just facilitated, no ideas
from me) get them to 400 in the same time frame. Same people, same problem,
just new insight on different ways to solve problems and brainstorm together.

These ideas have been studied and research for 60 years, have continued to get
better, and are practiced all over the world. They always give badass results
and change lives! Learn more here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_problem_solving>

Check out:

Gregg Fraley: <http://greggfraley.com> International Problem Solving
Facilitator and Author (We (<http://reubenandhunter.com>) designed that one)

Nathan Schwagler: Teaches Creativity and Innovation at the University of South
Florida St. Petersburg and is the creative-in-residence for the
entrepreneurship major, he also has a masters in creative problem solving from
Buffalo State (where these processes have been studied and taught since the
beginning) <http://www.linkedin.com/in/schwagler>

ME! After commenting here I think I'm going to start my own blog, as much as I
dislike writing, I hear it's the best way to get better :)
<http://reubenpressman.com>

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aymeric
Gosh, you are one of these designers who think of themselves higher than those
"non creative people":

"We would write those ideas the “non-creative” people gave us on a white board
[...] That list was called “The obvious list”"

~~~
heartbreak
"...so obvious that even an accountant could come up with." Very
condescending.

~~~
aarondf
As an accountant, I fully agree.

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pvs
I dont like the language, but i do like the essence of going after people who
have different mindsets / background / work for a fresher start.

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dave1619
I found the post interesting. Just curious what are some examples of jumping
laterally vs lineally with an idea?

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hoodmonkey
Thirt comment.

