The Best Entrepreneurs Think Like Detectives. Here’s How To Get Curious.
The following is adapted from Fearless Beauty by Mikey Moran.
When I first started my entrepreneurial journey, I began thinking like a detective.
Beforehand, I was prone to assess any given situation with simple questions like, “What?”, “Who?”, and “Where?” However, in order to improve my business, I realized I needed more information about the world around me.
I started getting curious. My budding entrepreneurial brain began asking, “How?” instead. Suddenly, I was constantly investigating, much like a detective or journalist.
How did that brand create such an incredible marketing campaign? How did that CEO make such an impression on me? How does this product get made? The answers I found helped me create a thriving company.
For this reason, I believe “How?” is the ultimate entrepreneurial question…and the most successful business owners are always asking it. Being an entrepreneur means investigating life by being curious and creating your business according to your answers.
Take Notice and Analyze
The first step of curiosity is simply noticing things in the world around you. Notice which of the businesses that you see every day are doing well and which are struggling. Notice how your experience varies in different restaurants or stores. Notice which marketing emails you read and which you ignore.
Every time you think, “That was cool!” or, “That sucked!” notice your reactions. If you don’t recognize when something different or interesting is going on, you’re missing out on the chance to learn something from everything. Train yourself to make these kinds of observations and write them down.
Ask, “How?”
Once you’ve taken notice, begin your analysis. This is the “how” question, and it’s a fantastic place to begin your entrepreneurial detective work. Figure out the big pieces and then break down the answers down into smaller, less abstract, more comprehensible sections.
A couple of years ago, I walked into a Verizon store. Since I use T-Mobile, “Why’d I do that?” would be a pretty good question. But the better, entrepreneurial question is: “How did Verizon get me into their store?”
The store caught my eye from the street. How’d they do that? It looked inviting. How’d they do that? I don’t know. It was colorful and bright and friendly. How’d they do that?
Standing in the store, I took another look around. It really was bright. I glanced up at the ceiling and noticed the lights. They didn’t look like ordinary showroom lights, they were set at an unusual angle, and they somehow made everything look clean and energetic. When I went back to my store, it seemed really gloomy in comparison, which it never had before.
Implement What You Discover
When you discover the answer to the “how” question, the next step is to step back and look at your own business in comparison. Can you implement similar measures? How can you create a more successful business based on your investigation work?
When I realized the answer to my “how” question at Verizon was the lighting, I knew I needed to act. I talked to the Verizon employees, took a photo of the lights, went online, and ordered them for my own store. My electrician installed them, and they looked great.
But I’d noticed more than the lights. Test yourself here — what else was different? I went up the ladder and fiddled around until I got them angled just right.
Our salon showroom looks great now. No one had noticed a problem, but they did notice how much better it looked after we got the new lights hung, and now, sometimes people walk into the store, and I can see them looking around a little confused. They don’t wear hair extensions; they just walked in off the street, and they’re thinking, “Why’d I do that?”
Get Curious
Curiosity is the defining feature of entrepreneurial thinking. I know I’ve always asked lots of questions about things; you probably have, too, at least when you were a child. But if you’re like I was, the questions you ask aren’t always the big entrepreneurial one. It took me a long time to figure it out, and it wasn’t a sudden lightning strike of insight.
You can become an entrepreneur without thinking like one — I know I did — but it wasn’t until I started thinking like one that I became successful. To think like an entrepreneur, you start by being curious, asking the right questions, and building the right thinking habits. Start with, “How?” and let the answers guide you towards something incredible.
For more advice on thinking like an entrepreneur, you can find Fearless Beauty on Amazon.
Mikey Moran is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Private Label Extensions, a hair extension and technology company helping entrepreneurs launch and manage their brands, ranked number 278 of the Inc. 5000 and the number one fastest-growing beauty business in the country by Cosmetic Business. Mikey has been featured on ABC, Fox, CBS, and CNBC, and in Forbes and Entrepreneur, among others. He is also the co-host of the podcast Hair Biz Radio and the founder of the influencer platform Beauty Clout.
