“In Greek thought, inspiration meant that the poet or artist would go into ecstasy, or furor poeticus, the divine frenzy or poetic madness. …” — Wikipedia
Why Inspiration?
Inspiration is the catalyst of almost all great things, and it often comes from trying to be just a bit different. I indented the paragraphs in this book to be a bit different.
In the startup world, all great products and business ideas come from inspiration — “Hey, what if the world had ____ ?” That surge of feeling, happiness, the light going on, endorphins, and sometimes even anger, creates a momentary heightened intelligence and vision.
The dictionary defines inspiration as “ a sudden burst of creativity.” Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia about the history of inspiration:
Ancient models of inspiration.
“ In Greek thought, inspiration meant that the poet or artist would go into ecstasy or furor poeticus, the divine frenzy or poetic madness. He or she would be transported beyond his own mind and given the gods’ or goddesses’ own thoughts to embody. ”
When you’re going about your process of trying to innovate something new in the commercial world, defining your processes, putting your time in, trying to be as clever as you can, you can easily feel like you’re diluting or leaving behind your original inspiration. This happens to me sometimes, and I try to protect myself from it.
“You’ll often wonder why you’re not coming up with the amazing idea, the killer app, the silver bullet. But, with the right ingredients, that’s exactly how inspiration comes along. If you combine all of the above with optimism, sincerity and enthusiasm, that’s where the amazing discoveries happen. You can’t predict or control exactly what or where they will be, you have to, as Nike says, “JUST DO IT.” Challenge yourself, be a little bit scared.
“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”
-Michelangelo
Dear startup CEO… do something crazy!
Being a CEO is an expression of the person, of self, of self image, of an individuals unique thought processes, ego. taste and style. CEOs also evolve over the years as they learn, have successes and grow more confident.
That’s why at times some CEOs look a bit ridiculous – they unknowingly show the world their bad taste or biased opinions or unreasonable thoughts. But that’s O.K., it makes the CEO more human, and they’re trying to channel their creativity. It is also the necessary process, and the vulnerability you need to venture into in order to find the good stuff – the truly creative breakthroughs. They’re on the way to good things.
When thinking like an artist, a CEO can experiment, let go of some of the many arbitrary rules we create for ourselves in the business world. The best ideas come from the willingness to experiment and throw away the bad ideas. Many artists find amazing breakthroughs when they make mistakes, put things out of order or look at something upside down.
First time CEOs often don’t even try to experiment; they’re busy enough handling the basics. They assume they should wait until after they have had some success, but they should try some crazy ideas as early as possible. When people try to “make art” unpredictable things can happen.
I relate this to my own artistic outlets – painting, digital design, photography, where I often create by discovering a mistake that produces something I had no idea I could do.
Then I try to incorporate those thought processes back into my business world, i.e “What if we tried…” “Let’s forget the rules for a minute, look at this differently.” By having the confidence to try crazy things my confidence increases. Often the crazy idea is not usable, but once in a while I’m rewarded with a pleasant surprise. All innovative CEOs do this.
painting
Software developers are very familiar with creative experimentation but the rest of us don’t see it, we just enjoy the results. Abstraction, encapsulation, namespaces – these are all ways of experimenting with code, tweaking it util something cool or unexpected happens. Imagine all the experimentation that happens when software like Photoshop or iOS is improved.
Another thing artists learn to do is to change their point of view – step back, turn it sideways, set something aside, wait a day or so and look at their project with a little more perspective. By doing this they see new things, and time can often make everything a little more understandable, less stressful.
In my paintings I constantly see things I could change. My mind wanders. I make mistakes that are great discoveries. Once they’re complete and up on a wall I’m still experimenting in my mind.
There are times a CEO has to make very difficult decisions regarding money or employees or products. These are serious, non-artistic moments. Try approaching these events and decision with creative thought, using different perspectives, like an artist would. Open your mind bit more. It will take some practice but the results will make you smile.
The 2nd edition has a few additions, new photos, corrections etc. But more important –– it was reformatted specifically for Amazon Kindle platform. This edition is only available on Kindle for now, and price was reduced from $8.99 to $2.99.
[This article is based on some assumptions: you have a business worth funding; you have the motivation that inspires investment; that you have access to a “reasonable” pool of funding.]
About 4 years ago, a good friend of mine asked me to help her figure out if and how she could raise some funding for her business. She didn’t have a “tech startup” per say, rather she was a UX/UI designer, and a very good one.
She wanted to raise money because she was starting to hire people under her as contractors to help her with her workload, which was designing graphics and interfaces for startups in San Francisco. The company has nice revenue growth, some proprietary software tools (CSS, Javascript) and a bit of cash in the bank. This is not a vanity business.
I said “Sure, that could be fundable. How much are you raising?” She just gave me a puzzled look.
People wonder if it was pretentious to assume a design firm could be fundable. I tell them absolutely not – if gourmet coffee is fundable, then of course digital design was and can be a fundable, scalable, “productizable” business. The real question: Is it scalable? If is that what you want – a bigger company? Investors? why? are you ready???
Those questions caused her to go away for a few months; that happens a lot when I ask questions. She eventually came back with some great answers to my questions. My only feedback was to double the ask; ask for twice the amount she felt she needed. That kind of shocked her again. Good.
Why ask for more? So many reasons. Costs are hardly ever lower than you estimate. It’s never good to run out of money, as we all know. Also, real investors know when you’re not estimating your costs correctly and that turns them off. Believe in yourself.
Often fundable founders don’t agree with me on this point. They say…
I don’t want to give up more equity
I can do it with less
Investors will say “no” if I ask for too much.
And here are my responses:
Fight for a higher valuation, use outside experts
Over estimate all costs
Be bold
If you wait until you’re running out of money it will cost you more. Also, you can possibly sell a little bit of your own stock to investors, give yourself a six figure bonus.
Im my book HACKING THE CORE, I write about using Creativity and Innovation to help startup founders achieve that elusive goal – sustainable business growth, along with a few other things like profitability, a fun place to work, personal fulfillment.
That’s an oversimplification, but the idea is to expand your horizons, “think different” to enhance your chances for success as well as personal fulfillment along the way.
Innovate. Be creative. Discover something no one else has. Go where they’re not.
The book also talks about Wantrepreneurs and Cantrepreneurs. In my consulting work I can identify these types of people. They’re usually struggling, losing their company, walking backward towards the edge of a cliff, failing daily. Yet they’re unwilling to change their thinking.
Creativity and innovation don’t actually make sense to them in a practical application because it threatens their status quo. Deep down, change is bad to them.
Their brains are wired to do things their way – no matter what. Usually their way is to mimic someone else’s or their own successful tactics from the past. Crazy, right?
Every entrepreneur wants to innovate but some just can’t. Even in the face of doom and bankruptcy they can’t change. Another type of cantrepreneur.
They ask for help but only to help them do things their old way, and not to bring new innovation to the problem.
Why? Because that’s a threat to their self image, their power, their reputation as being the authority. Their position as the boss.
There are other people who are totally open to change, reinvention, pivoting, innovating, threatening their own beliefs, listening to others. These are the real entrepreneurs. They’re happy to be wrong. They have much better odds for success.
![Furor Poeticus [Poetic Madness]](https://tomnora.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/furor-poeticus.jpg)
