In the idea economy, the value early-stage entrepreneurs provide lies not in their physical products or services, but in intangible assets such as their brand, reputation, network and intellectual property.
Many entrepreneurs and solo professionals get hung up on the word “creative”. Many entrepreneurs do not believe they are creative. Many people think of the term as it relates to artistic expression or ability. If you have a dry cleaning business, you might not think of it as creative business at all. In truth, being a successful entrepreneur in any business requires lots of creativity and innovation. More so in an economy increasingly driven by ideas! There are three important characteristics all entrepreneurs share:
Creativity
generating new ideas, evaluating them effectively, taking action to turn them into new products and services that create value.
Collaboration
connecting and working with partners, and other significant players in their network, which will increasingly be scattered beyond local geography and contain more ‘virtual’ relationships than face-to-face ones.
Entrepreneurship
identifying opportunities in the marketplace and using their business skills to transform formless ideas into physical products and profits.
Entrepreneurs have always relied on their creativity to produce wealth, but the modern creative entrepreneur in the emerging idea economy will go further and deeper. Noted author, John Howkins defines creative entrepreneurs as people who “use creativity to unlock the wealth that lies within them rather than with external capital”.
The greater value creative entrepreneurs provides lies not in their physical products (if any) but in intangible assets such as their brand, reputation, social network and intellectual property. These assets form the “inner game” I call the white hot center of competitive advantage.
Creative entrepreneurs inherently “know” their success begins inside them, and they go outward from there. How do these three characteristics show up in you?
The Age of Connection
There has never been a more favorable environment for creative entrepreneurs with big ideas and the will to bring them into form. Social Media has transformed every human structure and business model of the last half-century. We are truly in a new age of human connection and interaction.
What’s different is the transparent and “virtual nature” of these interactions as a result of this exploding phenomena. We are experiencing the embryonic beginnings of how humans will build more transparent, tribal and profitable relationships with others of like mind. It is in this fertile soil that the creative economy will grow.and ideas are its currency.
This gives the creative entrepreneur a leg up simply because, by their very nature, entrepreneurs are predisposed to thinking with creativity and innovation. The social web will only grow in its potential to bring humans closer, providing a powerful venue that is favorable to ideas that create more value for people.
Creative entrepreneurs will form the core of this emerging group who will become the new visionaries–people who create greater financial value from their intangible ideas. In the idea economy, the attributes that will power creative entrepreneurs toward greater innovation and wealth creation are:
Autonomy
the desire to direct the course of their own lives and be free from all bureaucratic structures.
Mastery
a never-ending capacity to grow and get better at something that really matters to them.
Purpose the yearning to do what matters to them, and have that serve the good of others.
What this means to you.
Many people believe they don’t “have enough” resources to pursue their ideas. They blame their lack and limitation on the closed structures of the past fifty years. If you continue in the belief of lack and limitation as a reason for not pursuing your ideas, and you will miss the opportunity of your lifetime. Snooze, you lose.
On the other hand, creative entrepreneurs are “possibility thinkers” framing their ideas around “what-if and why-not” questions. The emerging creative idea-based economy is a system favorable to this point of view. Never has potential and possibility for success been more available!
When you embark on the journey of pursuing ideas to grow your value to the world, you’ll be focusing your energy on trusting your intuition and imagination, (which is where all ideas come from) and less on the evidence interpreted by your physical senses. New opportunity will show up to strengthen your faith and belief. And with faith and belief, you will have the will to set meaningful goals and persist in your action. Persistent action gives you more momentum. Momentum leads to results.
If you are an entrepreneur, or thinking about becoming one, there is no better time than now to begin to take your creative business to the next level!
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