Having constantly innovative ideas is the key to success for entrepreneurs. However, starting a business is difficult because good ideas are hard to buy. Some of us attribute the emergence of creativity to chance, the so-called "willows planted unintentionally will make shade, but flowers deliberately planted will not bloom." However, experts who study creativity believe that creativity is just the tip of the iceberg. Without daily hard work, opportunities will not be such a coincidence. The so-called serendipity or sixth sense intuition is mainly due to the fact that entrepreneurs pay attention to learning and accumulation in daily life, and gradually develop a keen observation of environmental changes. Therefore, they can form creative ideas in advance. Creativity comes from knowledge and experience accumulated through continuous learning and a brain that is diligent in thinking. That is, creativity comes from learning and thinking.
The learning here includes two aspects.
The first aspect is learning in the classroom. This kind of formalized learning contains a lot of content. It is more often about arming the minds of entrepreneurs theoretically, so that they have an overall understanding of what they want to do and the meaning of doing it. Although this process is sometimes too boring and even considered useless, it is not actually the case. At least, entrepreneurs can find the direction of thinking when doing things.
The second aspect is learning in practice. This kind of learning is the most valuable asset for entrepreneurs. In the practice of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs personally experience every process and can feel what should be done in each place, what problems exist, whether there are better improvement methods, how to do something with a high probability of success, and how to do something that will inevitably lead to failure. Learn from failure and continue working hard from success. This is exactly what the saying goes: "Every time you learn something, you gain wisdom."
In addition, learning must focus on methods and cannot "learn to death". Imitating others is a great way to learn. One manifestation of the entrepreneurial process is that when a product is launched on the market and achieves good results, or a new invention is created, and it is judged that the product will have good market prospects, then you can imitate and follow up on this product. Launch it on the market, or launch it on the market after slight improvements. For example, Baidu, the search engine we use almost every day, imitated "Google"; the original version of "Focus" was an American program; and Super Girl, which has become extremely popular in recent years, almost completely imitated the American "American Idol"
……There are many success stories derived from this model. We can see that imitation also requires certain skills. Although the above examples have similar creative ideas, the market areas they promote are different. Similarly, if similar ideas are promoted at different times and places, and to different people, the form of promotion will also change. Who can say that this or that change in promotion is not considered creative?
Of course, the most important thing in learning is accumulation. Three days of fishing and two days of drying nets will never teach you anything. When you accumulate anything to a certain depth, it will naturally enter a certain state, and what you want will naturally come out. There is a very inspiring story. The architecture department of a certain university went through great troubles to invite an old designer who was highly respected in the architectural field to give a lecture to the students. There were six publicity boards placed around the podium, all of which introduced the achievements of the old designer. A student admired the old designer very much and was also surprised how the old designer could win so many awards. He found an opportunity, stood up and asked with reverence: "Excuse me, when did you start designing?" The old designer smiled slightly and answered him: "Since you were born." The people in the audience were stunned. After a moment, I realized that the words of the old designer were actually full of philosophy. For an excellent designer, he grew up completely in nature when he was a child, and everything he encountered was new. At that time, he paid attention to observing life, cultivated curiosity about things, and accumulated it day by day. Until now, he can Generate the most original source of creativity.
There is a saying in "The Analects of Confucius" called "Learning without thinking will lead to confusion; thinking without learning will lead to laziness." This shows the importance of combining learning and thinking. For entrepreneurs, if they want to constantly generate new ideas, it is not enough to just learn, but also to think about problems. Learning is just a process of accumulation and the basis of thinking. The purpose of learning is to think better. Thinking is the key to the generation of creativity.
In 1989, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the All-China Federation of Students jointly sponsored and organized the first "Challenge Cup" National College Student Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition. Tsinghua University, as the sponsoring university, hosted the competition and won the national "Challenge Cup" championship for the first time with an excellent result of first place in the total score.
Among the many entries that have won honors for Tsinghua University, quite a few are very creative, and they come from college students’ observations and thinking about the real life around them. The work "Renovation of the Closing Room of the Canteen" from the Department of Architecture is one example. Staff from the Science and Technology Association of the Department of Architecture said that the purpose of this project is to improve the efficiency of closing in the canteen and reduce the burden on staff; the specific content mainly consists of improving the structure of the closing office, transforming the dining cart and chopstick bucket collection and optimizing the combination, which will greatly save money. of manpower.
Talk about the idea of ??this project, the staff said, "Actually, it is very simple at first glance. Students have to deal with the canteen every day. As long as they pay more attention and use their brains, this way Creativity comes easily." It was from the above two points that the project author saw the current irrationality of the canteen's closing position and came up with this idea. The subsequent steps, such as conducting questionnaire surveys, researching canteens, making models, etc., all fell into place.
Bi Daoming, a sophomore in the Department of Thermal Energy, has an improvement plan for the swimming pool that can bring considerable economic benefits. This is also inspired by the details that everyone is accustomed to. According to the author, the used water in school bathrooms is still about 30 degrees Celsius, and it is drained away in vain, and the energy is not fully utilized; while the water temperature in the swimming pool is only about 10 degrees Celsius. Is it possible to find a way to collect the heat of the bathroom water to heat the water in the swimming pool? This is the basic starting point of the entire program. Using heat pump technology, after theoretical calculation, this plan can save the school 656,000 yuan every year after implementation. Of course, many difficulties must be overcome before this can be put into practice, but the author's careful observation and positive thinking about life have made him take the first step towards success.
The "Elevator Button Renovation Plan" by Wang Xianghui from the Department of Environmental Engineering overcomes the shortcomings of the current elevator operation plan through simple circuit improvements; the "Sixth Education Lighting Renovation Plan" participating in the cooperation aims to improve classroom lighting control to save power.
Students from the Electronics Department felt that the traditional electric soldering iron was inconvenient to use in some situations when making hardware, so they invented the "Handheld Automatic Tribute Tin Electric Soldering Iron"; inspired by the VOS game, they designed the "Playing Soldering Iron" "Guidance System". In addition, the "Personalized FTP Search Engine" designed by students from the Department of Computer Science, and the analysis tool for SMS details in dynamic zones written by students from the Department of Automation were all selected topics based on actual life needs...
In fact, these ideas are not profound, they are all around you and me. What we need is a pair of eyes that are good at discovery, plus a brain that is diligent in thinking.
Lan Jingyun is such a person who is good at thinking and discovering. When he started his business, he fully and thoroughly studied and researched female psychology. This continuous learning and research enabled him to achieve a successful start-up.
Lan Jingyun is from Hong Kong. He claims to know a lot about women and has even thoroughly studied female psychology. He invested in and opened a beeswax shop called "Qingya Ancient Wax" in China Plaza, Guangzhou. The store has only a usable area of ??more than ten square meters, but the monthly rent is 30,000 yuan. Lan Jingyun, who is in his 50s, is no longer an investment novice. He has been investing and trading in mainland China since the early 1980s. In 1989, the United States and Europe jointly imposed sanctions on China, and Lan Jingyun's trading business suffered a huge loss. Finally, penniless, he returned to Hong Kong and made a living by selling jeans as a "ghost". Why does Lan Jingyun, who is now facing the prospect of starting a new business, extend his investment tentacles to the relatively unpopular beeswax? A few years ago, Lan Jingyun accidentally discovered that many people in Hong Kong and celebrities in the entertainment industry like to wear a string of crystal bracelets or beeswax bracelets on their wrists. The celebrities' dress always affects a large group of star-chasers to follow suit.
After some research and market research, Lan Jingyun found that the profits of crystals were astonishingly high, so he decided to invest in the crystal jewelry business. Crystal jewelry is usually sold in pieces, but Lan Jingyun uses his wise vision and unique insights to dismantle the crystals and sell them piece by piece. This not only saves costs, but also allows different crystals to be sold according to customer needs. It can be combined into any bracelet or ornament, or you can make it yourself.
Soon, he came up with this idea. Under the recommendation of a friend, Lan Jingyun signed a cooperation agreement with Jusco Island in Hong Kong. Jusco Island will provide the business site and Lan Jingyun will be responsible for the operation. Jusco Island will receive 30% of the turnover in return, which is less than a year. In 2017, Lan Jingyun successively cooperated with more than a dozen counters such as Jushidao, Qianse Store, and Xianshi Department Store to sell bulk crystals. Due to its low price and good quality, when SARS was rampant and all industries were in depression, the crystals operated by Lan Jingyun were outstanding and became popular across the board.
While doing the crystal business, Lan Jingyun came into contact with beeswax, which is a higher level than crystal. The value of natural beeswax is much higher than that of natural crystal, and the profits are more generous. Due to the early folk customs, There are some people who specialize in collecting beeswax, because there are many high-quality beeswaxes that have a long history. China is not a place where beeswax is produced, so the price of high-quality beeswax is high. Through the natural crystal business, Lan Jingyun got to know many beeswax players and suppliers from the production areas. The profits from the beeswax business were also astonishingly high. In 2003, Lan Jingyun rented a shop of only 6 square meters in the Hilton shopping mall near New Town Plaza in Shatin, Hong Kong, with a monthly rent of more than HK$30,000. He named it "Qingya Ancient Wax". After half a year of operation, it maintained an average of 20 sales per month. With a turnover of more than 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, including shop rent, the cost is only 30,000 to 40,000 Hong Kong dollars, with a net profit of 160,000 to 167,000 Hong Kong dollars.
Lan Jingyun’s success stems from his grasp of some psychological characteristics of women. As an entry point for his business, his market positioning is relatively accurate. He used this to develop his ideas, but this idea also came from his careful observation and detailed speculation of life. Just a moment of impression gave him creative inspiration. This idea may have sprouted among customers, but no one paid attention to it. Although it concerns everyone who loves beauty, no one has ever taken action or paid attention to this opportunity to make money that has passed everyone by. To put it simply, he can dismantle the crystals for women to choose and design the jewelry according to their own ideas. This seizes a major selling point and caters to the needs of consumers, because most female consumers like unique jewelry. Decoration, this sales method will not form too many "colliding shirts" and meet the requirements of consumers to a certain extent, especially the special psychology of female consumers. This is a huge innovation for women's products and a breakthrough for the old sales methods. Consumers will have different opinions on product design based on differences in age, personality, taste, knowledge level, etc. Only they can better understand their own ideas, which means that it is more through personal experience. Use your hands to complete the ornaments you want. In other words, no one knows yourself better than yourself. In the process of doing it yourself, it brings unexpected pleasure to consumers, which increases their favorability, promotes their desire to consume, and increases the possibility of coming back again. And consumers can even regard the items made by themselves as handicrafts without explanation, and the value of handicrafts lies in "uniqueness" and "novelty". Besides, the natural characteristics of crystal handicrafts have been accepted by consumers, and entrepreneurs plan and operate them. The key to the popularity of semi-finished products is to give customers an opportunity to participate in the design and production. This design and production process brings great satisfaction to women, and female consumers will have their emotions changed because of this process. The sentimental nature of women determines that they have all the emotional mentality that little women cannot escape from. , causing women to not only pay attention to hard indicators such as the quality and price of goods when consuming, but are also easily affected by many soft factors that can affect their emotions. Therefore, when entrepreneurs are doing business with women, if they can pay attention to women's emotional needs and start from a humane and humane perspective, they can get twice the result with half the effort. Such creativity, why not? The entrepreneur's idea has been recognized by many companies.
It can be seen that successful creativity is inseparable from learning and thinking. Entrepreneurs should pay attention to observing life, thinking about life, and finding creativity from life.