Original, or Not Original; That is the Question
When you think about entrepreneurship what words come to mind? Most of us would list words such as creativity, new, innovative, self- starting. What about the word remix? I know what you're thinking, how could the word remix possibly have anything to do with entrepreneurship?
I recently listened to a 4 part video series by Kirby Ferguson called “Everything is a Remix.” Throughout the series, you come to question if anything is truly original. You realize that throughout history every invention, idea, art, and music, are just remixes of someone else’s ideas. Ferguson gives a formula that every entrepreneur uses; copy, transform, combine.
A great example of a company that used this formula is Apple. They took existing technology, used it in ways that no one else thought about, and became the successful business that we know today.
Even with music, we see this formula. Many artists use similar, if not the exact same, beats for their songs. They then rearrange the music and lyrics so that they have a new creation.
What does all of this mean for entrepreneurs?
A big issue that many people have when pursuing entrepreneurship is coming up with ideas to work on. Our whole lives we are told not to copy others, to do our own work, and to be original. This can cause problems when we sit down to think about new ideas.
What do you do when you are attempting to brainstorm? Many of us pull out our laptop, open up a word document, stare at the blank page and attempt to think of some grand idea.
This can be difficult if we have the mindset of “original” and not “remix.” When we think ‘original,’ we think pulling something out of thin air. When we think ‘remix,’ this allows us to look at other ideas that already exist. It gives us many options that we can modify and combine in ways that no one else thought was possible. Voila! You have a brand new idea that hasn’t been thought of before.
When using the formula copy, transform, and combine, we can revolutionize any area of our lives. In fact, it can be used at work. You can look at the way everything is run or software you use and realize there are ways to modify and combine them. What boss wouldn’t love to hear about new ideas to be more efficient?
Lesson Learned?
You don’t have to come up with ideas from scratch. I have struggled with this myself because I did not have this ‘remix’ mindset. We all just have to realize that our ideas are already out there. We have to know how to find them and transform them into something new and better.
