The main driver of wealth in the world isn’t venture capital or real estate or anything of that sort. It is as simple as a great idea. The currency of novel ideas and innovations is what drives the patent industry and why so many corporations employ a legion of lawyers with expertise in intellectual property. These hard-nosed, astute businessmen would not invest this much energy into these areas if they did not recognize the power of new ideas.
The true way to get ahead is to allow some buffer time and dreaming time to allow your imagination to roam. Don’t get so bogged down in your day-to-day tasks and routines that you forget to flex your creativity muscles from time to time. In the long run, this is where the greatest source of your net worth may ultimately come from.
Ask yourself – what are your hobbies and interests? What are your passions? What are those things that you love to do so much that you do them even when you are not being paid? Even when you are on vacation and allowed to be pursuing whatever interests you want? Some people find that even when they are on their own time, they still love to have their laptop out writing or they love to be driving around to different stores checking out what inventories look like in different regions. To some people – including your family and friends, perhaps – this can be a worrying sign. It may look like you are obsessed with your work or don’t know how to kick back and unwind. What you may need to communicate to them is that this aspect of your work isn’t a burden or something to escape, as far as you’re concerned – it is what you love to be doing with yourself.
These hobbies are a good clue to where you should be focusing your effort. It is possible to carry out a job for someone else that you aren’t passionate about – after all, many of us do it each and every day. We may even be able to become skillful at work that we don’t especially care about or feel a passionate connection to. For many of us, we find our driving motivation in what our job provides us in external rewards or what it allows us to do in our free time. This is why we endure menial or grueling but high-paying jobs – because they allow us to pay the tuition for our kids’ schooling or they allow us to take our families on the destination vacation that we have in mind. But it is far more difficult to rely on external motivation for a side project or an independent business. If you don’t wake up excited about what you are going to be doing, you will have that much less of an incentive to push yourself to be working on those weekend mornings and late evenings.
When you find yourself at that intersection where your passion and your abilities align, you are at the best possible place to launch a new idea or venture. Don’t limit yourself – there are applications, tools, and improvements you can make on any hobby or passion you have.
What is trending to be the next big trend in the marketplace? How can you carve out your own niche corner and set yourself up to be an expert unique from everyone else that is out there? What product is missing in the niche or how can differentiate your product from what is out there now?
One of the most common methods to find a new innovation or useful product is to identify a pain point or challenge that is out there. If you can find a way to solve that given problem or at least mitigate it, you are well on your way to finding your great idea that you need to get to the next level. Are you a sports fan? You may have some idea on how sports apparel or the experience of going to a big game could be improved. Are you a movie buff? You may have an innate understanding of what rabid cinema fans would like to see at the theater that would augment their experience. Your appreciation and genuine enthusiasm will give you a leg-up on your competition that no amount of dry market research or focus group testing can provide.
There are countless examples of individuals who have seen their happiness at work grow exponentially as they realize that there does not necessarily need to be an arbitrary boundary between their work and personal lives. Just think of all of those out there who are involved in marketing clothing or fitness products to their friends and families. The growth of the internet has enabled an explosion of micro-entrepreneurs using their insights into their hobbies to allow them to create and sell great products to other fans.
There are other strategies you can use to turn your hobbies and interests into your sources of income.
- Narrow it down.
You will often find that the more specific and targeted that you focus your efforts, the greater a prize there is for you to stand out. So consider how you can carve out your target customers to the most specific demographic possible. Do not just sell fitness supplements – target recent mothers getting back into shape or senior citizens seeking to find ways to stay active. This tactic will allow you to channel your efforts onto a smaller segment rather than trying to be all things to all people.
- Find other fans.
Invest the money and time to go to industry conferences and subscribe to trade publications. If you are selling a service to real estate investors, be at every regional meeting where you can hope to rub elbows and strike up relationships with those you want to do business with. Resist the temptation to do all of your business over the internet. Even in the age of social media, there is a tremendous premium to be found from face to face contact with your buyers.
- Don’t fake it.
Authenticity is everything. If you are not an expert or a rabid fan of the area you are working in, don’t try to make yourself into one or to fake it. Your customer base will be able to smell a pretender a mile away. You will be far better served to focus your efforts on those areas that you are actually and truly interested in.
- Combine ideas.
Get comfortable with the idea of allowing your ideas to mate and get to know each other. A lot of very lucrative niches come from the merging of two ideas – after all, combining two existing ideas into something new is essentially the definition of creativity. You may find that there exist intriguing overlaps between fitness buffs and Mexican food fans, or techno music and cruise travel. Use a white board to list all of your interest areas and then mix and match to find intriguing new fits.
What strategies can you use to turn into an idea machine? How do you know that you have landed on a great concept – and how do you know when it is time to turn back to the drawing board? What research do you need to do? Your ideas are what can and will put you on the fast track to creating your dreams and becoming financially free.