How to innovate and change the world?
Innovation is at the core of every successful business, organization, and charity.
It fundamentally shapes every aspect of our society. Without innovation, our society would stop moving forward. But if money isn’t the primary motivator, then what is? Why do we innovate?
How ShareCreators was born?
Once upon a time, a young art director was working late in the office again to create some work plan, and she wondered how she could spend less time on excel sheets but instead focus more on the design itself. She tried to find solutions on the internet, but all the software was either too old or cost a fortune. None of the solutions could solve her problems. She told her friend, the one who said: “We should make software that makes design fun again!”
Share Creators was born! Let Designers Focused on Design Itself Again!
The world that we live in today has been created by innovators, even though it is hard.
Like the Covid- 19 vaccine developer Dr. Katalin Karikó story, it was a scientific backwater before messenger RNA was a multi-billion-dollar idea. And for the Hungarian-born scientist behind a key mRNA discovery, it looked like a career dead-end.
Dr. Katalin Karikó spent the 1990s collecting rejections. Her work, attempting to harness the power of mRNA to fight disease, was too far-fetched for government grants, corporate funding, and even support from her own colleagues.
Even innovators like Dr. Katalin Karikó, who Helped Shield the World From the Coronavirus, sometimes feel discouraged “I thought of going somewhere else, or doing something else,” Karikó said. “I also thought maybe I’m not good enough, not smart enough. I tried to imagine: Everything is here, and I just have to do better experiments.” As she said, she never gave up on innovating.
Simon Sinek, in his book “Start with Why” tells a similar story of 2 stonemasons:
Two men were working with the heavy stones, straining, and sweating for long, hard hours.
You walk up to the first one and ask, “‘Do you like your job?’ He looks up at you and replies, ‘I’ve been building this wall for as long as I can remember. The work is monotonous. I work in the scorching hot sun all day. The stones are heavy and lifting them day after day can be backbreaking. I’m not even sure if this project will be completed in my lifetime. But it’s a job. It pays the bills. ” He looks forward to the end of the job every day.
About thirty feet away, you walk up to the second stonemason. You ask him the same question, ‘Do you like your job?’ He looks up and replies, ‘I love my job. I’m building a cathedral. Sure, I’ve been working on this wall for as long as I can remember, and yes, the work is sometimes monotonous. I work in the scorching hot sun all day. The stones are heavy and lifting them day after day can be backbreaking. I’m not even sure if this project will be completed in my lifetime. But I’m building a cathedral.’ This stonemason is passionate about his work every day.
As long as you have a clear goal for your innovation, we can still overcome all types of hardships.
Here are some practical steps for successful innovation:
Step 1 Start with why?
The most important thing is to solve a big problem that you believe. Start with asking yourself why? Why do things run in this way even though it does not make any sense? Why is this a problem？ Why should I solve this problem? Find a truly significant problem, and everything will fall into place.
Step 2 It doesn’t have to be big, Start niche, go big
It doesn’t need to be a grand plan at the beginning. Also, reality usually does not follow your plan. Things only work perfectly in PPT. Plans become more precise with every step that you take, so just get started on the journey.
Start with an industry or problem that you are really familiar with, a particular niche, as you solve more and more problems in that specific area, then go crafting your ideas, plans, and products along the way. You will eventually be able to go bigger and broader.
Step 3 Ask for help!
Share Creators is located in San Francisco, the bay area, the heart of innovation. Talking with our clients, friends, smart investors, or people who created successful companies before always enable us to find better product ideas, a friendlier interface, etc. Ask for help if you need it, most people would like to help if you do ask. They will help brainstorm with you and help you improve your product all the time. For example, in our share creators orange enterprise digital assets management software, a lot of functions are gathered from our clients’ feedbacks. The Share Creators Passion pipeline tools also collected different industries experts’ suggestions. Innovation also needs feedback.
Even if you can’t talk to the best people in your industry yet, you can certainly learn from them. Read their blogs and watch their webinars, read their books. Learn everything that you possibly can about your industry.
Step 4: Keep envisioning your cathedral!
As mentioned above, innovation could be challenging, make sure always to keep envisioning your inner cathedral! Never give up pursuing!
Keep innovating, that is what share creators believed!