Put yourself in the corner
and let ideas come and save you
(Above: random picture from my Round The World: Perth, Australia)
I never had a decent idea while working from the safety of a paid job.
Pretty early in life I realized that I need a minimum amount of tension to function properly.
When things get too comfortable a special kind of laziness comes in to my system, my brain goes down to cruising speed and I start drifting away.
I start thinking like everybody else around me, behaving like them, buying what they buy and so on.
So, I learned a survival trick: when I realize that advertising works on me (e.g.: I want a new car because I saw in on TV) I know I am in trouble.
I better do something.
My only coping mechanism is leaving and going for a long (months) trip.
That literally saves me everytime.
This kind of reaction is not of course the safest way to live.
I found myself in financially uncomfortable situations pretty often.
I never really had any money because every time my bank account showed some signs of health and I started thinking about that new car, I bought a plane ticket instead.
Having an unsecure life has two main side great effects tough:
- You don’t live in a dream.
You are aware that things change constantly, bad things happen, and could happen to you anytime, so you better make the most of it.
It’s MVP (Minimum Viable Philosophy) and does the job.
You are, in a way, closer to the truth.
I mean, Jesus and Buddha are far ahead but at least you know which way they‘ve gone. - You are forced to have good ideas and forced to make them work.
There is no time for ideas which are just sexy to tell to your co-worker while daydreaming about the start-up you are going to launch in the comfortness of knowing that your salary will automatically appear in your bank account at the end of the month.
There is no money at the end of the month.
It’s the jungle and you have to make a kill for some money.
So, the other day here at Eleven were shown an Airbnb video where Gebbia tells the moment they had the idea: they had no money to pay the rent and came up with the apparently stupid idea to rent space in their apartment.
And that was the start of Airbnb.
I believe the main reason they had the idea was because they needed one now and it had better work pretty soon.
In that situation there was no time for judging the idea as stupid, not viable, not scalable. It just had to be tried.
Zero theory. 100% practice.
When I had my own Airbnb idea (it’s probably not fair to call it like this but let’s do if for simplicity’s sake) I was also in a desperate situation: I had enough money to survive maybe another month and was terrified of going back to work.
And last July, when the Airbnb revolution, the Booking.com descent in the vacation rentals and all the new startups with 40 M € investments had taken my little niche market by storm and when I realized the “classic” model was no more viable for a small company, I had to come out with an idea.
And the idea came.
And it worked.
It’s like magic.
My take it that the brain starts working in different ways when you are in trouble.
The incredibly interesting part of this is not how the idea comes.
Ideas come every time, all the time, to many people.
It’s how you let them grow even if they look stupid and actually try them.
You are so desperate that you think:
“Yes, it’s a stupid idea but I need something which works.
Let’s see what comes of it.
Let’s try it. Now.”
It seems that being in need removes the common sense, the logical thinking, the “this can’t work” attitude.
It also removes the “let’s make the site look better before we launch”.
I don’t know. I told you it’s like magic, so I can’t explain it.
What I can tell you is: put yourself in the corner and see what comes out if it.
I know, sounds like empty advice.
What does “put yourself in the corner” mean anyway?
How do you do that?
I don’t know.
I guess you need to be scared enough of going back (to your job, your previous life or whatever feels not worth it) that you are ready to try anything.
I don’t think you can be both comfortable with the idea of going back and have enough determination to go through the hell every start up is.
You must be in the corner and there must be no going back.
