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- Find Your Purpose
Have you ever thought: If I earn this much money, I’ll be happier or if I owned that thing, I’ll be happier? It’s refreshing to know that in recent years, as a society, we’ve started to move away from the idea that economic success, wealth and possessions are signs of achievement or the sole items responsible for our happiness. What is Ikigai? Philosophers have been deliberating over constructs that explain the pursuit of happiness and the meaning of life for centuries. Ikigai is one thought to combine the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live”, and kai, meaning “the sensation of what hopes for”. Together these definitions create “a reason to live” or having a life purpose. We all strive for satisfaction and purpose in our lives. Your ikigai is your reason for jumping out of bed in the morning, what motivates you to revel in and appreciate life every day. Ikigai is a beneficial practice in career growth because like your own passions and needs, and what the world needs — the meditation of ikigai grows and changes with you. There’s not necessarily an end to your ikigai practice, it’s an ongoing journey. How to find your Ikigai? According to Japanese culture, everyone has ikigai. Detecting our strengths is not always easy. There are four questions that can help us find our path. If you write them down somewhere where you come across them regularly, you can use them as a compass bringing you closer to your purpose. To find your Ikigai, you must ask yourself: 1. What do I love? (passion) 2. What am I good at? (vocation) 3. What can I be paid for? (profession) 4. What does the world need? (mission) Ikigai is the union point of four fundamental components of life: passion, vocation, profession and mission. In other words, where; what you love meets what you are good at, meets what you can be valued and paid for meets that which the world needs. Ikigai is only complete if the goal implies service to the community. We feel more satisfied giving gifts than receiving. The next step, once you’ve identified these components, would be to start following your compass. Start working on your questions, and see how your answers fit in the Ikigai fundamental components. According to the diagram, the intersection of what you are good at and what you can be paid for is your profession. The intersection of what the world needs and what you love is your mission. Sometimes three of the criteria overlap, like the case where your passion (what you are good and what you love) and your mission (what you love and what the world needs) overlap. In that case, you have “delight and fullness, but no wealth.” Ikigai is when all four criteria are satisfied. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman What the world needs, and what people will pay for are the same. An economist wouldn’t really see a difference between what the world needs and what you can be paid for. If somebody needs something, then they would be willing to pay for it. If somebody is willing to pay for something, then they necessarily want or need it. Even if we consider social problems like poverty and homelessness, those with resources are willing to pay to help alleviate these problems. We economize on the use of resources to alleviate social problems through voluntary donations from others. Thus, somebody with a need who cannot pay for that need to be met is still covered by the blue-red total eclipse. “People have the potential to create your environment. Your environment then determines your mindset, and your mindset determines your future”. ~Myles Munroe (The Principles and Power of Vision) The law of association guarantees you a spot in the division of labour. Furthermore, the law of association guarantees that everyone has a comparative advantage. Using the language of the Ikigai graphic above, everybody has a guaranteed spot in what you are good at and what you can be paid for overlap. And since the blue and the red circles are really the same, what this means is that everybody has the profession-vocation combination. Everybody has a comparative advantage because even if somebody is really good at something, it means they incur a high cost by doing anything else. Said another way, if somebody is really good at something, then somebody else can produce something else at a relatively lower cost. The law of association is based on this logic. One man’s relative productivity in A is necessarily another man’s relative productivity in B. Individuals find their comparative advantage by interacting with others in the market. It is only by surveying existing producers, goods, and the prices of those goods that one can make an informed decision on what to produce or where to apply for jobs. What you love and what you prefer. The economic theory guarantees everyone a job that satisfies three out of four of the Ikigai criteria: what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you are good at. Unfortunately, the economic theory cannot guarantee the fourth criterion: that you love what you do. That part is up to you and your values. Economics can guarantee, however, that you will do what you prefer, which might be considered a broader category that encompasses what you love to do. The 5 pillars that enhance your Ikigai. In addition to answering those four questions about ourselves, there is another layer to the Ikigai concept: It is much easier to feel Ikigai when we create social connections. This explanation is perhaps due to the ingrained social connections that Japanese society promotes and is conditioned to seek. Ken Mogi, a neuroscientist and author of Awakening Your Ikigai, advises us to focus on what he labels the five pillars, which are: 1. Starting small 2. Accepting yourself 3. Connecting with the world around you 4. Seeking out small joys 5. Being in the here and now To make the most of the five pillar method, Mogi suggests incorporating this mindset in the first couple of hours after you wake up to start your day on the right foot and get your brain accustomed to this way of thinking. Time to find your Ikigai. Keeping the five pillars in mind, take 10 minutes to ask yourself those four core questions. Be honest in your answers and see what you come up with. Over the next several weeks, set aside time to ponder these questions. You might even consider journaling your answer and thinking about how your answers change over time. Revisit them a month from now. Six months. A year. We cannot expect to find our Ikigai overnight. Ikigai is an understanding of our own unique life mission, and for most, that takes many years — and it often changes. However, the more determined you are to find your Ikigai, the more quickly you will do so.
- Is your Idea Desirable?
Desirability, Feasibility, Viability Here’s how to think about it; in order to run a successful business, we have to create something that is Desirable (people want it), Feasible (we can actually do it) and it has to be Viable (we don’t go broke). We can’t afford to get any of these wrong. Therefore, we need to examine our business through each lens, to see how we’re going and what could be improved. The Desirability lens asks you to look at your customer; How do they hear about you? What brings them in the door? What keeps them coming back? Maybe you have a few different types of customers; can you articulate what each group finds most appealing? The Feasibility lens focuses on the “back of house” aspects of your operation. What needs to go on behind the scenes in order to create the magic for your customer? Key staff members? A recognizable and trusted brand? Partnerships with industry leaders? Ask yourself; what minor change to our operations would be diabolical? What do we have in place to prevent that from happening? The Viability lens is about the dollars. Where do they come from? Where do they get spent? What’s our breakeven point? Which of our customers are most profitable, and are we doing anything to pursue them? There are no right or wrong numbers, but not knowing your numbers is inexcusable. How can we make decisions about the future if we don’t have financial clarity? What often happens is a series of gradual adjustments; a change to the Desirability leads to a tweak to the Feasibility, and now our Viability is a little worse. How do we get back on course? Another change, leads to another, leads to another, until you spiral inwards towards the intersection of the three lenses, where success lives. Over time, the market shakes up your model, and will push you away from the centre. Your job as an entrepreneur is to be vigilant, and constantly re-evaluate things through all three lenses.
- Avoid Common Mistakes
Believing that you need an amazing idea to get started The first, most common mistake is believing that you need an amazing idea to get started. What this usually looks like is someone who believes the key to having a successful startup is starting with a brilliant idea Jumping into the first idea that comes to mind The next mistake is exactly the opposite: jumping into the first idea that comes to mind, without really stopping to think critically about whether it's a good idea at all. Starting with a solution instead of a problem The third mistake is to start with a solution instead of a problem. The last mistake is believing that startup ideas are hard to find. Actually, they're easy to find, because there are many, many real problems left in the world. If you're having trouble finding them, it's just that you haven't yet learned how to do it. Once you learn how to notice good startup ideas, you'll see them all over the place.
- Minimum Success Criteria
Instead of thinking in terms of your business model’s maximum upside potential (like the 1% market share goal), I find it more helpful to think in terms of timeboxed minimum success criteria. If, for instance, you had asked the Google or Facebook founders when they were first starting out whether they thought they would go on to build billion dollar companies, they would probably have laughed at you. “We built it and we didn’t expect it to be a company, we were just building this because we thought it was awesome.” - Mark Zuckerberg In the case of Google, we know that despite building a very successful search engine (in terms of usage), they struggled for years to find a sustainable business model and even tried to get themselves sold to yahoo for $1M which got turned down. So at that point in time, we could say that their minimum success criteria morphed from whatever it started at to $1M. That didn’t keep the google founders from going on to build a billion dollar company. No one penalizes you for revising your goal upwards. Not only is the minimum success criteria easier to estimate than your maximum upside potential, it also helps you model your progress along the way. Your minimum success criteria is the smallest outcome that would deem the project a success for you X years from now. Some notes: 1. I like to use X as 3 years and don’t recommend going over 5 years. The key is picking a time box just far enough into the future that allows you to demonstrate a small scale working version of your business model. 2. I prefer framing the outcome in terms of a yearly revenue number versus profit or a company valuation. Yearly revenue has fewer inputs which keeps the model simple. The others are optimized derivations of revenue. So as long as you leave yourself enough room, you should be okay. 3. Finally, the outcome does NOT have to be revenue based. For instance, I wasn’t driven to write my book, Running Lean, by money but impact. Not-for-profit ventures also fall into this category which I’ll cover in a future post. . . That said, the minimum success criteria is just a number and it’s still somewhat decoupled from the actual specifics in your business model. Lets see how we tie the two together.
- 1. Finding the Right Ideas
WHO THIS IS FOR: - you are interested in launching a startup but not sure where to start - you haven't picked a startup idea yet - you are worried that your startup idea isn't good AFTER THIS MODULE YOU WILL: - have a better idea about why you want to launch a startup - be able to identify and evaluate good ideas - have a simple process for developing ideas TIMEFRAME: 20 minutes to complete the module 2 - 4 weeks to develop ideas
- The Unstuck Method
Our approach to launching startups focuses on learning by doing. Our process is quick lessons, clear and simple step by step actions on how to launch and grow your startup through ideation, validation, building traction, business model and positioning. We will even help you manage web, app development, fundraising and partnerships. This is not theoretical or unlocking your inner potential. This is straight-up experience (through 20+ years of trials and tribulations) to help you get things done and achieve real results. We focus on Mindset, Strategies, Tools, Insights, and Actions. READ: The Myth of the Entrepreneur STEP 1: Do you agree with the below? Being a founder is hard work, you need to be willing to get involved in every part of your startup. If the above statement scares you STOP, No one will do the work for you! STEP 2: Promise to "BEING YOUR BEST" If you are ready to do the work grab a piece of paper or open the notes app in your phone and answer this question: What is the best the version of you? (list all the ways you plan on applying your self) This is a promise you make with yourself. BONUS: Share your, "Best" promise with someone and ask to them help you be accountable.