The best teams at Stanford re-framed the question of how to make money with only $5 in two hours more broadly. They reasoned that since $5 is essentially nothing, they needed to focus on ways of earning money that would not cost them anything. For example, one team brought a bicycle tire air pump onto campus and filled the tires of bicycle commuters up with air for a donation. Another team saw the long lines outside of restaurants and used their cell phones to make reservations and then sold these reservations to the people standing in line for $20. A third group went to a festival and took people’s pictures. The group that made the most money was a group who viewed their most valuable asset as the 2-hour presentation time they had to present their project to their fellow students and sold this time to present a sales promotion for a local business for $650.
Finding creative solutions to problems is essential to us all when the business environment is constantly changing. We all need to know how to identify opportunities, balance priorities and learn from mistakes.
Most people believe that problems are to be avoided, not embraced. But entrepreneurs must learn to solve problems to stay in business. Here are some other insights gleaned:
** Most ideas, even when they look silly on the surface, can be reworked to have some potential.
** It is usually possible to build on others’ good and bad ideas to make them better.
** When doing something new, sometimes it is better to know the few things not to do, rather than a bunch of rules to follow that may or may not be important in achieving success.
** For many entrepreneurs with multiple companies, the greatest factor to success is learning to kill non-profitable projects early.
** If you quit someone else’s venture, give plenty of notice and don't leave them in a lurch because your reputation will follow you for years. If you let down co-workers at the company by quitting at an inconvenient time, all of your good work will be lost because people will only remember how you let them down.
** Success often follows failure if you learn the lesson.
** Some failures can be turned into a success. For example, 3M Post-It notes began as an adhesive that didn’t stick.
** For an enjoyable career, find an opportunity that aligns with your passion, a need in the marketplace, and your talent.
** Hard work is usually an important factor in making someone successful.
** If you are a young mother who plans to stop working at a full-time job for a few years while your children are young, find a way to stay connected to the workplace through volunteer work or some other activity, like contract work.
** Most lucky breaks come from prior training and preparation.
** Being observant, friendly, open-minded and optimistic draws luck to you.
** There can be great value in recombining ideas in unusual ways.
** Don’t wait to be anointed by someone in authority, unless what you want to do requires a license granted by the state.
** Assume a thank you note is in order whenever someone does something for you and that not giving a thank you note is an exception, not the rule.
** Your reputation is your most valuable asset, so guard it well.
** When faced with a problem that is ambiguous, think about how you want to tell the story ten years into the future before you take action.
** Embrace uncertainty.
There are a lot of other great tips about life and how to solve problems throughout the book. But I will let you uncover these on your own.
Rating: $$$$$ out of five. I wish I had this book when I was 20. This would make a great gift for young people searching for direction.
Copyright @ 2016 Christine Esser
This book was purchased, not a gift.
This book can be purchased on Amazon by clicking the first link below. Disclosure: We may receive a small commission from your purchase, but this will not raise the amount you pay. Thank you for reading this review. Comments are welcome. We have not received anything from the author or publisher in exchange for this review.
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