It’s natural that we see limitations as obstacles.

We think that if we don’t have certain things, abilities, connections, or a certain amount of money, we are useless and can’t do anything good about our life.

Let me give you a new perspective instead.

Think of those limitations as constraints.

And creativity always loves limitations.

Think of a game. The game will have a set of rules and constraints that require you to respect it in order to play the game. The more the constraints, the more it pushes you to be more creative, to think out of the box, and how to win it within those constraints. The popular story of a game is always about how a player can overcome all the constraints and limitations that he has, and be able to make it, win the game!

And that’s what makes the game interesting.

Same with your life. What makes you interesting is that how you can overcome your life with all of those limitations, and still make something good out of it. Your constraints that you carry from the day you were born are the ones that make you special. That’s also why I believe God is always fair.

The constraints require you to be CREATIVE. They push you to be creative in your own version of life.

Let’s learn from the persons with limitations that ever lived, that instead of getting knocked down by life, instead they inspire humanity with their creativity.

Look at Stephen Hawking’s limitations. He had ALS progressively paralyze his body and take his speech. His physical limitation forced him into a life of deep thinking. His mind became his primary instrument. Lots of interesting theories were produced.

Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. Instead of seeing his body as a barrier, he reframed it as a platform and witness for humanity. His limitation gave him a message no one else could authentically deliver. His uniqueness became his differentiation.

Helen Keller traveled to twenty-five different countries giving motivational speeches about deaf people’s conditions. You know her constraints? She couldn’t access sight or sound, so she accessed reality through touch. With those limitations she thrived and still was able to finish her education with excellence. Thanks to her, she advocated the mass adoption of Braille and pushed for a standardized, unified Braille system in the United States. Her blindness and deafness did not close her world. They forced her to build a different one.

All of us have our limitations and disabilities that we carry since we were born. And also constraints that people or situations put on us. Constraints of budgets, time, rules of work, and more.

Now you have the new mindset. Do not hate it, or be against it. Instead, see it as a creative challenge.

Limitations reduce distraction.

Usually, what makes people average in life is that they don’t know what to focus on and pursue in life. Thanks to constraints and limitations, they help you reduce distractions. Your options are limited so that you can focus and start winning in your life.

Limitations do not reduce potential. They redirect it.

Constraints are not walls. They are alternative doors.

So from now on, start to love yourself with all the “fixed” constraints and limitations that you have.

What story of creativity do you want to be told about your life?

Love your limitations!

If I could teach my child one lesson to thrive in this blue planet, it would be to master these three essential skills: learn, create, and share.

Think about it—our daily lives revolve around these three activities, whether we realize it or not. We learn by scrolling through endless articles, videos, or social media posts, often passively absorbing information without truly retaining it. We create—from emails to presentations, to-do lists, or quick fixes at work. We share by posting on social media, forwarding messages, tell stories, or speaking in meetings and forums.

This cycle of unconscious learning, mediocre creating, and thoughtless sharing can leave us feeling stuck, uninspired, or even replaceable. Many of us go through life on autopilot, following the crowd and accepting “that’s just how the world works.”

What if we could approach these three skills with intention and mastery? What if we could stand out by learning purposefully, creating meaningfully, and sharing powerfully?

Mastering these skills can transform your life...

1# The Skill of Learning

Learning is something that we naturally do. From the moment we’re born, we learn—how to talk, walk, and understand the world around us. As we grow, our brain develops, our awareness expands, and our understanding deepens. The good news is we learn naturally. But, the bad news is also because we do learning naturally, we never think that “learning” could be improved. We think it is just the way it is, and we’re gonna missed the most out of it.

Understand how you learn, how brain and memory work

Before you learn everything else, start learn about this first. Learning effectively is a task that many adults never master. You need to go through a metacognitive process first, look inside first.

It is a metacognitive process. To understand this, you need to look back, self-reflect, and wake up your awareness. Learn how you usually learn something, and do evaluate: is it effective? what methods did I use? what worked the best for me? what didn’t work? how do brain actually works? Why do I remember something so briefly, while others I can retain for an extended period? You’ll be surprise that learning is more than just read things and memorize it.

I totally had a different mindset and approach toward the way I learn something, once I learned those questions above.

One think I learned for myself is that, when it comes to difficult topics, I learn by rewriting it on my own. I read watch or listen, then I rewrite my understanding on a paper (digitally or physically). By doing that, the information sticks longer on my brain.

Learn by making my own analogy is also helpful. So when I receive an information, and it is hard to plainly grasp the concept, I usually tried to make sense of it by finding an analogy that represents the same concept. Or ask to your teacher or mentor, what would be the best analogy that can help me understand this concept? Analogy help us find the gap between our existing knowledge and try to connect it with the new concept. Interesting isn’t it? Why it works? You need to digging more on how our brain and memory works.

One other think that really work for me is called “spaced repetition” learning. This is interesting method to learn, and make it stick longer on your memory. So instead of go invest all your time to read a book at once. Try to read it quickly, break, then revisit it tomorrow, then break again, then revisit it again. We need to put space, and we need repitition. Why this works? again it has to do with how our neuron and synapses in our brain works.

Another technique is called “focused and diffuse thinking”. When you learn something and get frustrated, sometimes when you give a break, step back and do other things (this process is called diffusion), then when you comeback sometimes everything is just looks easier, and suddenly it just make sense. In reality when you diffuse from the topic, your brain is not simply forget it, it actually doing some work in the background. You can digging more on this technique...

Do not be rush in learning everything, consume everything, scroll scroll scroll, play this video, play that video. You’ll just throw information on your short-term memory, then forget it a day later. Don’t “just learn” something, learn effectively.

Learn with purpose

Your life age would never enough to learn everything in this fascinating world. If you could quickly find your area of expertise, passion, or something that really spark the fire within you, the better. You can start maximize your time and effort to learn on those things, instead of scrolling around social media. Learn purposefully.

Have a growth mindset

Understand that your capabilities and intellegence is not fixed is important. You learn to grow. Pursue learning and progress is more important than set your believe in a “final report” that says you failed. Growth mindset individuals are not afraid to learn something and making progress. Mistakes and failures are part of the process to grow, as long as you take the lessons learned from them.

2# The Skill of Creating

Creating is where learn meets action. Learning and creating are two sides of the same coin. The more you learn, the more equipped you are to create.

Creating is the process of solidifying your learning. Both learning and creating go hand in hand. Those who love to create something novel are called creative people.

But sometimes creative people have the “mood” problem. We only create when “we feel” like we want to create. Too many things we want to create. We want to be many thing. Master everything.

There are some significant differences between mediocre creators and the pros. Lets digging more on it...

Watchout your hobbies

You might love to do many things. You might have five hobbies. I will suggest pick one thing you enjoy the most, then take it seriously. When you’re clear on your one most hobby, think about how to get serious and how about make money out of it. Dont just do your hobby to waste time. While you enjoy doing it, why dont make a fortune out of it?

What I learned is that as you grow older, you dont have much times to take care of all your hobbies. Pick one or two at most.

Professional creators takes their hobby to become their business.

Treat your hobby as an investment that will return income later, not as a total expenses that lost forever.

Mastering one thing

Wether you’re good at code, writing, crafting, speaking, counting, dancing, or thinking... focus on that one thing first. Master that first. Monetize that first, before you move to other things.

Spend your young energy and time to master that one thing. Find informations, browsing, ask AI, find mentors, connect with people have the same passion with you.

Before you invest your time on anything else, ask yourself: have I found my expertise area? have I mastered it?

Consistency beats intencity

Aim for consistency not intencity. Consistently take 15 minutes to write everyday is more powerful than 4 hours per two months. The more you consistently iterate on a process, you become better at it.

When creating something, sometimes we deal with muscle memory. Muscle memory needs repeated practices. Do it again and again and again, until you master it. How many times you repeat the practice is more important than how long the practice is.

Before you become creative creator you need to consistently create first, and it takes discipline to become consistent. Many great innovators emphasize that creativity isn’t just about random bursts of inspiration—it’s about consistently showing up daily, putting in the work, and refining ideas over time again and again.

Make it easy to begin creating

Sometimes the heaviest part that hinders us from creating is “to begin”. Sometimes it feels really hard to just begin. There are hundreds of excuses that we can use to lye on ourself, just so that we can procrastinate.

James Clear mention in his Atomic Habits book that instead of focusing solely on goals, we should focus on systems. A system is essentially a structure that makes a habit easier to follow, reducing reliance on your motivation and willpower. Do not trust your yearly wishful goals. Do not rely on your todo lists. You will not doing it if you don’t make yourself doing it. The smarter approach is to create a system and design an environment to “push” your body do the work. To become a creative and consistent creator, you need to have a system that works for you.

Create a system that makes you feel easy to “begin” create. An example of a system would be a fixed daily alarm every 5AM that would wake you up create something. A template that opened-ready for you to fill out, so you can just easily follow the template. Have a buddy, your friend or mentor, that will check on your progress periodically. Have a daily gallery capture everyday progress posted in your Instagram highlights. The rule of “1 paragraph” a day. Make up your work table and chair, make sure it is clean and neat, ready for you. Invest in tools that make it easy to create. Hang a poster of your admired figure near your work desk to make you stay motivated.

Do anything possible you can so you can easily “begin to create”. Yes, that’s the aim: just to begin. The rest will be easier.

3# Sharing

It is our instinct as social creatures to share. After you create something, the satisfaction comes when you share it. It feels rewarding when you share your creation. It is like a chain reaction: after you share, it makes you want to create more to keep sharing.

The willingness to share is a crucial thing that makes the human race keep moving forward. Can you imagine where would we be, if Newton or Einstein or Tesla felt shy and wouldn’t share their theories to world? What if those great people did not publish their books, papers, or journals?

By sharing, we influence or inspire other people. We also get a sense of fulfillment.

I love the term “fruitful.” When you share your knowledge, creations, and ideas, you become fruitful. Others can taste the benefits of your work, apply your insights, and live better, more effective lives. And when you feel fruitful to others, you experience a sense of fulfillment and purpose. Who wouldn’t want that?

Here are my lessons learned in sharing...

“Wait for perfection” fallacy.

You will be always “the work in progress”. The waiting for perfection is an illusion. Every progress is worth sharing, either small or significant.

If I wait until I become a book writer to write the blog post, I don’t think it will ever happen.

Start to appreciate progress and effort over the final destination. Progress is declared when you start to share the journey.

Don’t just show it. Tell a story about it.

When you share information in the form of a story or anecdote, it becomes more memorable. Our brains are wired to remember stories, making the shared knowledge stick. Don’t just throw information at people—help them understand.

Tailor your message, tie an authentic story to it. Unpack the why, the journey, and the outcome. Reveal your story behind your craft.

Wrap Up

Mastering the skills of learning, creating, and sharing will set you apart in life.

These three pillars feed into each other, creating a cycle of growth and impact. You learn to create. You create to share. And you share to inspire and teach others to do the same.

Start today—learn something new, create something consistently, and share it with the world.

Let’s be fruitful together in life.

Innovators are made not born. If we curious enough to learn, we can improve our innovative and creative skills. Adopted from this awesome book here, let’s dive into these gems, the five skills of disruptive innovators. The authors—Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen—studied successful innovators (25 entrepreneurs, and also surveyed more than 3,000 executives and 500 individuals who had started innovative companies or invented new products) to identify their key traits, so that we can adopt and learn more about it. I’m surprise most of these skills aren’t taught in schools.

1# Associating skill

This skill connects unrelated ideas to come up with something new and novel. With this skill innovators come up with unique ideas to solve a problem.

Take a look at “Medici Effect“, a proven theory showing that creativity and innovation can be increased through diversity. You can solve a problem in one field with principles derived from a totally different field.

James Dyson, a British inventor, is known for creating the first bagless vacuum cleaner. His innovation came from associating principles from an entirely different industry. By associating the cyclone technology with the vacuum’s need for a more efficient mechanism, Dyson developed the Dual Cyclone.

Another case of association skill, applied by Shakira, the musician. She grew up in Colombia, she was exposed to traditional Latin music, but she also embraced Middle Eastern melodies from her Lebanese heritage. By associating these distinct sounds with modern pop and rock elements, Shakira crafted a unique musical style that resonates globally.

To practice associating skill we should build the habit of looking beyond our own industry or area of expertise for inspiration, then try to connect it back to the problem.

2# Questioning skill

Innovators often start by questioning existing beliefs or practices. They love to challenge the status quo with intriguing questions. They ask, “Why do we do it this way?” and “What if we do it differently?”

Michael Dell’s idea for founding Dell Computer came from a simple question: “Why does a computer cost five times as much as its parts?” This straightforward inquiry led to a revolutionary business model.

Marc Benioff was once wondered: “Why are we still loading and upgrading software the way we’ve been doing all this time when we can now do it over the internet?”. This fundamental question was led to the birth of Salesforce.com

Instead of bluntly follow your assumption, asking provoking questions like “what if”, “why”, “why not”, “how to”, then bravely follow your curiosity, may lead to the discovery of new creative solutions.

3# Observing skill

Observing is a unique skill. By slowly watch and pay attention to your surroundings, might spark you with insights and opportunities.

Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese-Japanese entrepreneur, is the inventor of instant noodles (1958). One day, he observed his wife frying tempura, a Japanese dish where food is dipped in batter and deep-fried. This sparked an idea: what if he flash-fried the noodles to remove moisture? This would not only preserve the noodles but also allow them to be rehydrated quickly when hot water was added. Amazing!

The idea for Quicken was born at Scott Cook’s kitchen table, where he often watched his wife pay bills. He recognized her deep frustration and immediately saw an opportunity to revolutionize the process with a faster, more efficient solution. Driven by this insight, Cook launched Quicken and established Intuit in 1983. Today, Intuit offers cutting-edge software and online products that revolutionize financial management for individuals and small businesses alike. By addressing his wife’s frustration paid off, with Quicken capturing an impressive 50% of the financial software market in its very first year.

There is power in observing and watch it by ourselves. Toyota has this philosophy called ”genchi genbutsu” — meaning “go and see for yourself”. The best practice is to go and see the location or process where the problem exists in order to solve that problem more quickly and efficiently. Direct observation has been a pillar of Toyota Production System.

Observing is not an easy practice. We need to slow down, be present, fully aware, and pay attention. I will write more on this skill in upcoming post.

4# Experimenting

Another important skill to have is the skill of experimenting. You need to be willing to try and test ideas. No surprise lots of breakthrough innovations came out from experiment labs. An organization that foster the culture of experimentation will have more innovations than those who doesn’t. The boldness to actively testing new ideas lead to innovations. That’s why Google encourage their employees to spend 20% of their time on side projects and new ideas.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, famously said, “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.” The Kindle e-reader began as an experiment and has since transformed Amazon from an online retailer into an innovative electronics manufacturer.

Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This mindset embodies the concept of “experimenting” in innovation — by constantly testing new ideas and iterating on them. Imagine again and again do iteration for ten thousands times.

Experimenting is a skill and also a mindset. Its not just about the process. Each experimentation need to be effective. Focus on learning, not just aim for the success. You need to iterate quickly, and do feedbacks collection on each iteration. Make sure each experiment results in new insights.

5# Networking

To enrich your thinking and ideas, you need to expand your networking as well. Research suggests that the more opportunities you have to connect with different people—and fresh ideas—the more creative and productive you tend to be. Quoted from the article: “people with different backgrounds and skills and ideas bumping into one another, sparking fresh thoughts and collaborative visions.”

Wide networking broaden your perspectives. It is important to connect with diverse people, listening actively, and using these interactions as a way to constantly bring in new ideas and perspectives to fuel innovation. To be innovative you need to devote your time and effort to practice this skill.

Imagine combining observation and questioning skill, the you add associating skill, then you combine them and utilize networking to expand the idea.

Combining these five skills is like a combo that make you an innovative person in whatever you’re doing.

In upcoming writing, I will dig more on some of these skills.

Happy practicing!

One day at the office, one of my work colleagues announced his resignation. Been 5 years working with him. He is one of the best and the oldest employee in our team. As usual, he explained that he had to move to another city and said some words about his experience working with us. One sentence that hit me hard, he said “ you guys help me to stay relevant in my job“. Suddenly the words speak louder to me: How to stay relevant?

Everyone always starts a new session of their life fresh, engaged, and full of enthusiasm. Then time goes by, over time we face challenges, we do our everyday routines, we lose, we win, then we hit our comfort zone, and we’re getting older day by day. When we do or be something for a very long time, could we stay relevant? That’s my biggest question.

When we’re not relevant anymore… we’re useless. We’ll be forgotten. We’ll be replaced. How can you stay in the game, and be useful?

The same questions go to everybody:
How can a worker stay relevant to her job?
How can a professional stay relevant with his work?
How can a husband/wife stay relevant to his partner?
How can a businessman stay relevant in the business industry he’s in?
How can a father stay relevant to his child even when they’ve grown up?
How can a friend stay relevant to his other friends?

How do you know you’re still relevant... or the opposite.

Stay relevant is not about surviving, but it is about staying valuable in any circumstances. Value is the main indicator here.

In every season of my son age development, my wife would throw away any toys that not relevant anymore to my son’s age. The mother simply judge by the usefulness of the toys. If the toys support my son development, or if the boy like the toy very much, then we’ll keep it. And interestingly there is this one toy that my son had since 1st birthday, a block of woods.

Why that particular toy still relevant?

• Perceived values : the parent still see value in the toys that the kid haven’t explore yet.

• The toy still relevant to the kids milestones, to improve fine motors, and creativity.

• The toy is flexible enough to be combined with another toy to make a new custom game.

• When the toy is missing, the kid will looking for it again and again.

Some of the signs that you’re still relevant:

• You have something to bring into the table.

• You understand what are people talking about.

• Your involvement is needed, wanted, or appreciated. Being asked about your opinion.

• You got positive feedbacks.

To stay relevant in the workplace...

• Be a lifelong learner. Be willing to learn new things. Get out your comfort zone and try to learn things that you don’t understand. If you got a boss that ask you to learn new things, take that as a blessing. Instead of let you go, they want you to upgrade yourself, so you can still bring value to the work.

• Skill diversification is a must. Don’t be boring. Combine hard and soft skills. By combining hard skills (like data analysis or coding) with soft skills (like communication or empathy), you not only make yourself more versatile but also more interesting and engaging as a professional, making you indispensable to your team.

• Engage with your work. Engagement is about more than just showing up and doing what’s asked of you. It’s about bringing your energy, ideas, and creativity to the table. Have the mindset to contribute. Catch up with the topic is the minimum bar, you need to “contribute”. Remember, anyone can do the bare minimum, but those who truly engage are the ones who make a difference.

• You’re flexible and able to collaborate with others to create greater value. Your impact could be less significant, but if you could collaborate with other, the impact added up, and can produce something more valuable. If you can be awesome team player, less likely you’ll be replaced.

Shift your mindset from just surviving from day to day at work. Let’s move to the level of “How can I still contribute values”.

It is fascinating see creative individuals perform their miracles. The way a creative brain works is like out of my world. Their new ideas are unpredictable, exciting, sometimes risky, unbelievable, and inviting. Their point of view is at another level. The can connect the-unconnected. Once they do the brainstorming, it’s like we waiting for a new wonder to happen, new piece of mind-blowing idea is in the making.

Yep, that’s the power of human “creativity”. Your level of creativity distinguishes you from others, even though it can be nurtured by anyone.

Creativity often feels like a myth. For some, it feels like magic, that cannot be reproduce anytime we need it.

My goal with this writing is so that you can realize that creativity can be developed by anyone. It’s not a myth nor a magic anymore. And so that we can stop saying “I’m not a creative person...”.

For me, creativity is the ability to imagine and connect disparate pieces knowledge or experiences together, to come up with novel ideas for problem-solving or self-expression. The word “novel” means new, unusual, interesting, or something original.

As I dig little by little, I started to see elements of creativity and ways to improve it.

Nature vs. Nurture

It’s a debate of nature versus nurture. Is creativity something we are naturally born with, or something that we can develop.

Research has shown that certain traits associated with creativity are inherited. Some of these traits are the ability to open to new experiences, having a high level of intelligence, flexibility, and being able to think in a more imaginative manner. It is true that some people are born with the creative potential genetics. Although they have the leverage, but it’s not determine that people that born without the potential genetics could not be creative. Studies suggest that creativity is not just something we are born with but can also be learned, similar to other abilities. So yes it is true that you can learn to be more creative and it is not solely determined by genetics.

The famous “twin studies”, studied the identical twins, separated at birth indicate that our ability to think creatively comes one-third from genetics; but two-thirds of the skill to be creative comes through learning and depends on the environment. If you curious, dig more on this article.

Another identical twins study by scientist Dr Nancy Segal, said that “different environments trigger different gene expressions”. The study shows that even our genes is work in “probabilistic” ways, not in deterministic ways. In other words, even you are born with a super creative DNA, it still depends on “other factors” that could determine whether you’re able to express that creativity or not. It still a probability. Same with the other way, you may have the fact that you’re not born from creative parents. It doesn’t mean that you’re set in stone, and can not change.

Creativity traits come from combination of both nature and nurture. Nurture has a considerably stronger influence than nature. So no excuse, by sustained training and practice within the right environment, you can foster your creativity.

Deconstructing Creativity – Let’s make a juice 🥤

Creativity is a complex process. There are many parts involved. The way I see it, its divided into 3 aspects: the raw materials, the process, and the supporting environment.

To elaborate more about it, let me use an analogy; the making of a juice.

1. Start by gathering the fruits and vegetables.
   These are the raw materials. Creativity requires information, knowledge, and past experiences. Without these we can’t make anything. The more the raw materials that are available, the more options we gonna have. The more informations, knowledge, and rich experience we had, the more creative we could become.

2. Get the best blender, make sure the electricity is working.
   It talks about the supporting environments in creativity. It is as important as the raw materials. In order for the creativity process to success, the right environments need to be set in place. They are freedom and confidence. It sounds corny, but yes it is crucial. Without the permission to being free and feeling confidence of themselves, it could jam down the creativity process. If you will be punished for come up with bad idea, then your brain will not dare to be creative. It won’t take a risk. Creativity blooms in freedom and confidence.

3. Selecting the combination and blend them.
   The process begins. We decide which fruits and vegetables to combine. It might based on taste, nutrition, or personal preference. Creativity involves imagination and association skill. As Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination spans the world”. Our ability to imagine and associate things together to come up with something unique based on the goal. Sometimes we need to try to new combination. Sometimes we could experiment by combining things that seem unconnected, it might come up with something “fresh”, we never knew. Your imagination is the limit. You then need time to blend them together. Creativity requires time to brainstorm. Sometimes when you do brainstorming together within a group, you could combine ideas or knowledge from different people together.

4. Time to pour it out into a glass and test it.
   In this process we do check the ideas, we check for feedbacks.

So those are important elements of creativity. Lets recap:

• Healthy Brain

• Knowledge

• Experience

• Imagination skill

• Association skill

• Freedom (safe space)

• Confidence

Tackle the myths

1# It’s exclusive to arts.

Another misbelieved is that creativity is exclusive to the arts like painting, music, or handcrafts. As human, we manifest creativity in everything that we do, whether it is in economy, politic, business, education, parenting, health, sports, any domain we can touch.

“There’s artistry in everything that we do.” — Rainn Wilson (Actor)

You might read this article on your phone. The smartphone itself is an evidence of creativity in technology.

2# Left brain and right brain creativity.

Its not true.

“The reality is that creativity involves interaction of lots of different brain networks that rely on both left and right side of the brain.” — Scott B. Kaufman (Humanistic Psychologist)

“Creative people are using both sides of the brain together” — Wendy Suzuki (Professor of Neuroscience at New York University Center)

Nurturing Creativity

Now, we know some important keywords in creativity, the task becomes clearer, to boost our creativity we just need to work on those important elements.

Experience more. Go outside. Gain more knowledge. Build your confidence, and be free. Don’t judge your idea before you express it. Be brave to express, take the risk, tolerate the risk of uncertainty. Interesting things happen when we don’t know.Creativity begins with not knowing it. It begins with a question: “What if...“

Improve your imagination and association skill. Take care of your brain health.

At this age of technology, you can quickly search those keywords and find out various practices or exercises.

Whether it’s art, writing, music, or problem-solving , creativity plays an important role in our lives. And always remember: “There’s always a room for creativity.”

Most people think that the “skill” is the ultimate requirement to be successful in doing anything. That’s not entirely correct. There is something more fundamental needed.

I see “skills” as the outcome of doing something rather than the requirement. When you do something over and over again, you gain the skills, and it gets improved. Skills are developed and continuously refined. Do not get tricked about “you have to have the skills before start doing this and that”. If you just get started, of course, you have no skills.

So if you are a beginner, how can you start something and be successful? increasing the odd, the luck, the confidence, or the probability of success in doing anything, or be anything? You might hear it thousand times that people say: “Just do it”. Don’t just do it. Do it differently this time. “Do it” with this formula:

🔑 Higher Success Rate in Be/Do Anything =
Pick The Right Mindsets + Pick The Right Framework + Do It

When the right mindset meets the right framework, you can increase the chance of success in doing or being anything.

Let’s get to know each parameter.

Mindset

I’m always curious when there’s a new book that breaks down the steps to achieve something. If you read most self-help books, they have similar patterns. They always start by telling you to prepare the right mindset. They always start with the mindsets. Want to be rich? First, they tackle your mindset about money. Want to be a successful startup founder? First here are the entrepreneur mindsets you need to have. They always laid the foundation with mindsets.

Mindset is your collection of beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and “what you accept as true”. Mindset shapes your behavior, mental model, and your choice of actions. Your mindset sets your perspective. It determines what you see as right or wrong. It is something inside you, that makes you become “you”. I can argue that your mindset determines the course of your life. The reality we will have tomorrow is part of the product of the mindset we have today. It is powerful. Check out this short video about human mindset.

The mindsets change what people strive for, and what they see as success. They change the definition, significance, and impact of failure. They change the deepest meaning of effort.

It is so sad to see some young professionals oftentimes hate when somebody talks about mindset to them. They thought it was something abstract that had no impact on their life. They ignore to understand about mindset. They avoid the conversation about mindset. They thought it was useless and irrelevant. In fact, mindset shapes how you see and approach things. A person with the mindset “live to work” is different in their behavior compared to a person with the mindset “work to live”. Mindset is the one behind someone who is “grit” and persistent.

When you enter someone’s mindset, you enter his world. I love to imagine mindset as the landscape of a city with buildings, roads, and bridges. The person designs his “city”. Some people’s cities are fixed and rigid, some are flexible and open to changes. If you’re unfamiliar with the notion of “fixed mindset & growth mindset”, I recommend you to dig into the book “Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfill Your Potential” by Dr Carol Dweck.

When your mindset is ready, some problems are simply not problems anymore.

The right mindset prepares you to do or to be anything. In order to be a Navy SEAL force, besides your physical and intelligence strength, you need to have the mindsets of resilience, teamwork, adaptability, and mental toughness.

To be a successful entrepreneur, no questions asked, it is the mindset that you need to get it right first, the “entrepreneurial mindset”, how you see risk and opportunity.

To be a world-class athlete, you need to upgrade your mindset, and your belief system. You need to push the limit, you need to break new records. Your belief about competition and human body limitation is important. You need to see a limitation as something to break.

Any role, any job, any work, needs certain mindsets to be adopted first to do it optimally.

The wrong mindset hinders you from learning certain things

One of the problems is we overrate the hard skills and underrate the mindset. We think it’s all about skills. We think that the main cause of our failure is the lack of skills. In fact, sometimes it could be the mindset that you got wrong, that hinders you from achieving certain skillsets.

For example, If you believe “I can not be rich”, just because your current salary is at an average minimum wage, you won’t even bother to think to read those books about “wealth management, how to manage your capital, steps into the capital market”. The mindset locks you up in your current state.

When you have the “I’m just not the type of person who speaks in a meeting, because I am not that interesting. Nobody wouldn’t listen.” mindset. With that mindset, you set your standard and make yourself believe that yes you are not interesting. You’ll miss developing leadership and communication skills. It just automatically does not come out as your agenda. Because the mindset hinders you from even thinking about it. Things were going to be different, if you just had the mindset of “Everybody has a voice, I have my own voice too”. With that mindset then you go explore “How can I communicate or articulate my voice/idea so everybody could understand?”. I surely believe you’ll unlock new skills, right?

If our life is like a computer, the mindset is like the specs of the computer. So some tasks can not be performed if the specs of the computer are not capable of doing so. It is not about the skill of the person using the computer. It is just the specs that are not capable enough.

You can take control of your mindset.

Be careful with your mindset, meaning be aware of the beliefs that you choose to believe. Do not just let it built automatically. You can choose what beliefs or attitudes you wanna build. You can grow your mindset. You can learn to develop a new mindset.

Start by being aware of what mindsets are needed to perform certain things.

Next time when you google “how to be a world-class software engineer”, instead of just doing that, also ask “What is the mindset required to be a world-class software engineer”.

Acknowledge and leverage the power of mindset.

Framework

Our second parameter in the formula is the “framework”. Recently I stumbled upon the notion of “Thinking in Frameworks” inspired by Vicky Zhao’s videos on her YouTube channel. Her mission is to help people communicate better by having “clear thinking”. And to achieve clear thinking, you need to “think in framework“. She explores many frameworks in her videos. The keyword “framework” then hit me with inspiration. I know you are familiar with the phrase “nothing new under the sun”. Somebody would’ve invented a framework for doing certain things. Why don’t we just learn and apply it?

Basically “framework” means the way or structure of doing things. A framework comes from the wisdom and experiences of doing certain things, then the author realizes that there is a pattern in doing that process to make it successful. Then the author formulates and simplifies the steps of the process into a “framework”, so anybody else can follow it and gain benefit from it. I would say this is the wonder of humankind! Somehow we humans could pass our knowledge and successful secrets to our successors.

There are millions of frameworks invented by wise people who lived before us, that are worth considering and using as our weapon and strategy in doing anything. A framework simplifies the way of doing things in clear steps, to achieve something. These are gems of life, I would say. Explore, learn, and apply them. It is so unfortunate if you miss these.

There is Almost Any Framework To Do/Be Anything

To be a world-class learner, there is a framework called “Challenge Based Learning” by Mark Nichols. To be a successful entrepreneur there is the framework called “D.E.A.L (Definition, Elimination, Automation, Liberation)” by Tim Ferris. To be innovative there is this framework by Tina Seelig called “Invention Cycle: Imagination - Creativity - Innovation - Entrepreneurship”. To be a great teacher there is a framework called “The 5E Model” by Rodger Bybee. To develop a great product for the market, there is a framework called “Value Proposition Canvas” by Dr Alexander Osterwalder. To make a good goal you’ll need to check “S.M.A.R.T” framework developed by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham. For creative brainstorming, there is a framework called “Six Thinking Hats” developed by Dr. Edward de Bono. To improve your problem-solving skills, there is a framework called “SCAMPER” by Bob Eberle. To know more details, you can just google it.

If you are curious enough to find it, there is almost any framework to do anything. They are inside books, videos, talks, publications, or any research document. Sometimes they are named “techniques”, “methods”, “formula”, “tools”, “steps”. Be aware. They are truly gems written by gracious authors to pass the knowledge to others. I love to collect them in my notebook.

Of course, as a human being, our challenges keep increasing. Our problems are becoming more complex from day to day. Do not worry, maybe you will be the author of a new framework.

The Benefits

There are benefits of applying the invented frameworks. First of all, the obvious one, is that you don’t have to figure it out from scratch. They serve you as a starting point. You can follow the existing knowledge and wisdom gained from lessons learned, failures, and successful experiences. Proven effectiveness is also one of the benefits. There is value in frameworks because they have been test-proven and effective in addressing certain challenges or achieving specific goals. You don’t have to fall into the same common mistakes, the frameworks help you avoid that in advance. The other important benefit is that sometimes a framework also gives you priority, meaning the steps inside a framework are already sorted by priority. And the priority matters because it guarantees success. If you mix up the step’s priority you might have problems or fall into the common mistakes that most of people make. Framework also gives you simplification and clarity of doing things. Within a framework, ten of the steps could be compacted into three steps.

I am not against the idea of inventing a new framework. I believe it’s worth it to apply the existing framework first and then refine them by your own experience. You could even invent a new one after you make some personalized adjustments according to your experience. Like cooking, it’s effective to apply what’s already there. There are hundreds of existing proven cooking frameworks, you don’t have to invent a new one, you apply them first. Make sure you do your research first, is there any framework existing yet? How does it work? What challenge or benefit does it offer? Does it serve the same goal as my intention? If it is yes then it is worth to try.

The Magnificent Combo: Mindset + Framework

It becomes powerful when you combine the two: Mindset + Framework.

Have that in mind when you wanna start something. When you are set with the right mindset, you’re unstoppable. Don’t stop there, work smart, and look for the right framework to do it.

What do you want to be? You wanna be that great software developer? successful investor? do big presentations on a big stage? You wanna be that pro-basketball player? Do you want to date that amazing girl?

Pick any goal you want, and instead of looking for tips and tricks, ask these two questions:

• What are the right mindsets required to do this?

• What are the frameworks already exist today regard to my goal, and how can I pick one that suits me?

Mindset and frameworks, these two are the gems of life.

The word “innovation” is a powerful and important keyword in human life. In fact, innovation drives the evolution of this world. It is super important for making things happen in today’s fast-changing world. I bet you might hear about it every day, people say: “You need to be innovative!”, “Our company needs to innovate!”, “Innovate or die!”, “We are the most innovative company in the industry”.

Innovation is often known as a big yet complex keyword. We might have different opinions of what the word means. Sometimes it’s easily misunderstood. Sometimes the word innovation is used interchangeably with the keywords “creativity” or “invention”.

As young professionals who just started a career in a company, you might be expected to innovate. You are needed to make an innovation in the company. Or you are a business owner in a competitive industry. You need to lead your team to innovate or your product/service will be ignored. How would you do that? Just doing your work as business as usual, will not help you much to innovate, without understanding the real meaning of innovation.

By dispelling the myths and misconceptions around innovation, we can foster a better understanding of its core meaning and how it happens. When we have a clear picture of a destination, it’s easier to find ways to go there.

In this article, I filter out the most common myths around innovation. Let’s jump in!

Myth #1 - Being creative means being innovative

Being creative does not necessarily mean being innovative. We oftentimes use the word “innovative” interchangeably with the word “creative”. Actually, they are not the same. This could mislead our understanding of innovation. Some companies or individuals would think that they are innovative, otherwise they’re just being creative.

Being creative means you can generate fresh ideas, connect dots from different fields, and come up with a new idea. You might come up with a uniquely brand-new method or approach. The output of creativity is something new and different. Creative individuals would have richer imaginations and be exposed to varied experiences, that would help them generate new ideas. At this point you are not innovating yet, you are just being creative. By the way, I will dedicate another article to demystify the keyword “creativity”.

Being innovative requires another level of work than just being creative. Being innovative means you take the idea and implement it, and here is the important part, you need to make sure that, that creative idea or product adds value to its user. This process requires you to experiment with the real user of your product or service. You need to apply and do trial and error to make it useful, and drive positive change to its user. Values are perceived by the user, not by the producer. So as the producer of that creative idea, you cannot fabricate its values, your users are the judges.

Being innovative also requires effort to not just apply that creative ideas, but also think about how to make it sustainable. So it’s not just about those creative ideas, it is also about the implementation of the idea and how it’s gonna last in the user’s hand, tested over time.

Once it sustains, innovation is also able to change the way people do something. It sets a new standard. It transforms the way people usually see or do things because your product is so innovative, people are willing to change their behaviors because they follow your approach.

Anyone can create something new and different, but not all can turn it into an innovation. An innovative product/service/process should solve a problem, or improve one’s life, either the user or the maker.

Coming up with a brand new “out-of-the-box” name for the menu in your restaurant, that is different from other restaurants, is a creative act. But it is not an innovation, because the new menu name doesn’t add any significant value to the customer. But if you can come up with a new menu system that could help customers identify how it’s cooked and imagine the taste for example, and customers love it, and it inspires other restaurants to follow your system, now that is an innovation.

Being creative is important to be innovative, but being innovative is far from just being creative, it requires thoughtful implementation, and adding value. That’s our myth number one.

Next time if you come up with creative ideas or products, ask yourself to push them to innovation level: does it solve a problem? does it solve my problem? do others need to know this? would it be beneficial for others too? what if others adopt your ideas or product? If it got many “Yeses” then you might be close to an innovation.

Myth #2 - Innovation has to be a new invention

Anything new, is invented. Just like “not everything new is an innovation”; an invention is not necessarily an innovation. Innovations may not always result in the creation of something entirely new but rather in the enhancement or evolution of existing solutions. Anything new does not necessarily add value to its user. For example, Xiaomi or Microsoft could invent a new model of smartphone, but as long as “it’s just another smartphone”, then it is not an innovation.

Some inventions could lead to innovation with the right strategies, but not all. Take the iPod for example, at the same time, the invention of the iPod innovated the way people play music. To support and complete the innovation, Apple also introduced iTunes which disrupts the music industry, bringing the the idea of having 1000 songs in your pockets. It is something people never thought of before. It added value, especially for iPod users. That strategy made the innovation successful.

Knowing this difference is important so that you can manage your expectations. Do you expect to just invent a new thing or to innovate? Do not get into the trap and false claim.

Innovation can happen by simply tweak or improve the current product or service. iPad turned out to be a successful innovation by using the technology behind the iPhone model and making the screen larger and a stronger processor. That’s it. But it finds its user needs.

Myth #3 - Innovation is complex and expensive

Moving from the previous point, understanding that innovation requires more effort than just being creative, sometimes it could also mislead us to think that innovation is complex yet expensive to do.

About the complexity myth, once you understand the nature of innovation, it would be clear that we can foster innovation with clear frameworks. It’s not something vague or mysterious process. For example, I love the “Invention Cycle” framework by Tina Seelig; to innovate you start by enriching your imagination by exposing yourself to lots of new experiences, and then you connect those imaginations and the knowledge so that it becomes your source of creativity, then you innovate, focus to make sure the tangible product or service tackles needs, solves problem or brings out unexploited opportunities, then you go into the entrepreneurship state. You can learn more about it in her book: “Creative Rules: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World.” Clearly, you can see that there are steps to achieve innovation.

There are already lots of popular frameworks to approach innovation, such as the classic one Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas as a tool to making sure your product or service has value, Blue Ocean Strategy, 10X Thinking popularized by Google’s “Moonshot Thinking”, Lean Startup Methodology that focusing on rapid experimentation and iterative product development, Innovation Ambition Matrix that helps organizations assess and prioritize their innovation initiatives, and many more. You can choose to experiment with one of these popular frameworks that suit your organization’s needs.

Next, let’s talk about the price. Innovation is not limited to those with extensive resources. In the context of an organization or a business, there are lots of simple and low-cost innovation opportunities that we might overlook. Innovation doesn’t have to be BIG to make a difference. The more important aspect of innovation is the creative minds behind it, not the expensive tools or resources.

I bet you agree that “QR Code” (Quick Response Code) is an innovation. It was a creative idea that popped out inside the head of Masahiro Hara, from the need to track automobile parts during its assembly process, inspired by the game Go. It was developed back in 1994 by the Japanese corporation Denso Wave—a division of Denso, which is a subsidiary of the automobile company Toyota Motor Corporation. QR Code becomes popular when cellphones include cameras because camera is the perfect technology for reading QR Code. The usage skyrocketed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. With the world urgently seeking contactless solutions, QR codes emerged as the perfect answer. They’re simple to create and maintain, and nearly everyone has a phone equipped with QR scanning capabilities. Suddenly, tasks like dining out or making purchases became touch-free experiences, minimizing the risk of germ transmission. Have you ever wondered how much the cost was needed to make QRCode technology? A development team with only two members.

After demystifying its complexity and expensiveness, it’s also important to know that the innovation process also comes with risk. Nothing great comes without risk. If it’s not managed properly, you can end up with wasted products/services, and lots of wasted energy and resources. This is why you need to select innovative frameworks that can help you minimize the risk. Start small, test it out, improve, then keep iterating.

Myth #4 - Innovation has to be a product

Innovation can be intangible. It could be an innovative process, strategy, system, framework, business model, or innovative experience/services. It doesn’t have to be a product.

The “franchise” business model is an innovation invented in the 18th century.

A “subscription-based model” in payment is also an innovation. Netflix was one of the pioneers in popularizing the modern subscription-based model.

Think about a small barbershop that offers massage service after the cut. It’s one of the innovative strategies that the customers find valuable.

Innovation could be in any form because all aspects of our life could be innovated.

Myth #5 - Innovation is about technology

If you agree that innovation does not have to be tangible, then it’s easier to demystify the myth that said that innovation always requires the latest state-of-the-art technologies.

Simple ideas, the right execution, iterated user testings, good collaboration, and enough resources, are more than enough to make innovation happen. It’s not so much about big technologies. Even for tech companies, the technology itself is only the product, it relies back to the creative minds behind the organization.

Not including AI in your product doesn’t mean you are not innovating.

Instead, focus on improving your mindset, critical thinking, questioning skills, your approaches to problem-solving, those are the keys to an innovative mind.

Myth #6 - Innovation is only for big companies

What about small companies? or individual level?

When you know that innovation is not about the resources, the expensive resources, or the latest technologies, then you know that innovation can happen in any size of organization, even individual level.

When you trace back an innovation, the seed took place in the mind of the individual. The idea was sparked by a single mind, then it was collaborated with other minds, it was being shipshape, then made its debut to the world.

Lots of innovative companies started with humble beginnings. A company could become big because of its innovation. But before that, they were just small teams. Take Airbnb for example. Airbnb was founded by only three individuals: Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk. Three people!

Think about how Jeff Bezos innovated the online shop experience alone at his small desk.

My blog speaks about being creative and innovative, not just for an organization but also at the individual level. I believe if you are innovative and creative as an individual, you can spark others at the level of a team/organization.

Myth #7 - Innovation is solely the result of individual genius and brilliance

To make the innovation happen, need to allow someone else to build upon your idea. You need to share the idea and get feedback. An innovative product or service requires the work of a team behind it. The more creative minds are involved, the better the innovation. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the creative minds are needed.

Think about the innovation of the iPhone. While Steve Jobs is often credited as the visionary behind the iPhone, its creation was the result of collaboration among a team of engineers, designers, marketers, and executives at Apple.

Another example is the innovation of the polio vaccine. While Dr. Salk is widely recognized for his role in creating the first effective polio vaccine, the development of the vaccine was not solely the work of one individual. It involved collaboration among a team of scientists, researchers, and medical professionals.

You could make a difference by yourself, but you could make a significant innovation with a collaboration of creative minds.

Those are seven popular myths around the keyword “innovation”.

I love to learn while I’m writing. During the writing of this article, I gained a deeper insight into the concept of innovation, thus enhancing my understanding of it. Sometimes, I say “Let’s innovate!”, but actually what I mean is “Let’s be creative!”. Now I know the difference.

By reading this post might not instantly make you an innovative person, but at least you know better about your destination: to be an innovative person/organization. A better understanding of it enables us to make it happen. For someone who is afraid to innovate, now you know that there are frameworks made to make innovation happen.

Remember, we (human) are natural innovators; because nature will always push us to innovate. But don’t wait for Mother Nature to wake you up, because the one who is first to innovate wins the benefits.

A South African boy was born in 1918 in the middle of apartheid domination. His name was Rolihlahla Mandela, later given Nelson as his first name. Yes, he is the famous Nelson Mandela that we know. Growing up, he witnessed the injustices of apartheid, a system of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the South African government. Listening to the older generation’s tales of his ancestors’ bravery in the resistance wars, he also aspired to contribute to the fight for the freedom of his people. Mandela started studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but didn’t finish it because he got kicked out for joining a student protest. Despite facing discrimination himself, Mandela believed in equality and justice for all people, regardless of their race. He became involved in the anti-apartheid movement and joined the African National Congress (ANC), a political organization that fought against apartheid.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Mandela led peaceful protests and campaigns against apartheid, but the government responded with violence and oppression. In 1962, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for his activism. For the next 27 years, Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, a harsh and isolated prison. Despite the difficult conditions, Mandela remained determined and resilient. He continued to fight for the rights of black South Africans, and his spirit inspired others both inside and outside the prison walls. Finally, in 1990, at the age of 72, Mandela was released from prison after international pressure and negotiations with the South African government. He emerged as a symbol of hope and reconciliation, advocating for peace and democracy in South Africa.

In 1994, Mandela made history by becoming South Africa’s first black president in the country’s first democratic elections. He worked tirelessly to promote reconciliation between South Africa’s racial groups and to dismantle the legacy of apartheid.

That’s the life of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. It’s easy to summarize his life: he fought for the apartheid government, racial segregation, and race discrimination. Do you agree that he had a meaningful life? I bet everyone agrees.

Back to us, inspired by Nelson Mandela’s life, we can also have a meaningful life. Here is one way to make it meaningful and exciting: Find your “meaningful” problem and work on that (or fight for it).

Find your “meaningful” problem.

When we are aware enough, each of us is surrounded by many problems. Your financial problem, relationship problem, problem at work, problem at your business, problem with kids, problem with your body, problem with your food, problem with your environment, problem with your church, problem with your pets, problem with your time management, and so on.

The key question here is, which one is meaningful for you, which problem is worth your life? It doesn’t have to be something big, but it definitely has to annoy you, to some degree it irritates you, and makes you decide to fight that problem.

I believe each of us, has our relevant problem, that may exist in our lifetime only. The problem may only seen by our own eyes, and uniquely and perfectly suited for us to solve. Something might be meaningful for you, but might be not for anybody else. We’re unique. We are interested in things that have value for us.

John C. Maxwell fought for “leadership” issues. Most of his time is dedicated to helping people improve their “leadership”. He is considered one of the most influential leadership experts in the world and has written numerous books on the subject. That’s the meaning of his life.

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani girl who dedicated her life to fighting for girl’s education. From an education activist in Pakistan to the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate — she continues her campaign through Malala Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for girls’ education around the world.

Mery Tanudjaja, a friend of mine, is a Surabaya woman who finds her passion in crafting beautiful headpieces for women. Crafting the perfect hair accessories for a woman on her special day can be a challenge, especially when she is seeking pieces that flawlessly complement her outfit. Mery took that challenge and worked on that. Since then, her craft is become a trend. You can check her work at monliesmade.

These people are known for the problems they fight for. And that gives meaning to their life.

It’s not easy to pick on one. Many people find it after their 30s of age. Some find it after a long time of looking inside in contemplation. Some find it right away when they are young. Some find it after a moment of revelation. Some find it after being inspired by other people.

When you look deeper inside you, you’ll be surprised that; you are the way you are because you’ve been prepared to solve or work on that particular issue/problem.

Take your time. Do your reflection. Be aware of things around you.

Be honest with yourself about the things, ideas, and problems that truly motivate you. Then pick a meaningful one for you to work on.

Your life will become meaningful when you see other people get affected by your work. People benefit from your work, impacted by your work on that particular issue. Maybe it starts with your nearest, your family. They’ll start to remember your name. They start noticing your work. You’ve made the world a better place.

That’s where your life brings values, becomes meaningful, and makes it worth living.

So remember it always, one way to live a meaningful life, is to discover your meaningful problem and work on it.

Which problem is worth your life? —

Photo by Mayur Deshpande / Unsplash

The Traits of An Innovator That You Might Nurture in Yourself

From Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Albert Einstein, Alan Mathison Turing, Steve Jobs, Sahil Lavingia, to Patrick Collison, there are common traits or behaviors shared among these great personalities. I called them the traits of innovators. Regardless of the scale of their impact, undoubtedly they are innovators in their era. Their works have made the world a better place.

To cultivate the innovator’s spirit within us, it’s interesting to look at and learn from those giants’ life. You might carry the same behaviors, the traits of an innovator in you.

As we know an innovation doesn’t have to be a big invention. Instead, making 1% progress of improvement in a particular process of product is already a sign of an innovator.

Let’s dive in. Hopefully, this list inspires you to become more innovative and keep honing your innovative spirit. Let’s learn together, these are the traits of an Innovator:

Problem Solver

Solving a problem is a fulfillment for them. When they saw a problem, they saw an opportunity. The problems that they’ve solved define who they are now. When you read their biography, the highlight will be what were the problems that they’ve successfully tackled and overcome.

Innovation, at its core, is about solving problems. Each problem has its scale. We can always start with the small ones. Start to solve things that are problems to you first, then learn from it. Find the meaningful one.

When Sahil Lavingia, couldn’t find any good platform for indie creators to directly and easily sell their products to their audience, he was eager to solve that problem, so he built Gumroad. Now Gumroad has grown from $4M in annual revenue to $22M in revenue, and from Break Even to making $10M in profit a year (source).

— Innovators are remembered for the problems they solved.

“Someone’s favorite book has yet to be written. Someone’s favorite painting has yet to be painted. Someone’s favorite movie has yet to be made. It could be yours.”

– Sahil Lavingia

Productive

Yes, you might have some time to play around, but innovators constantly look for opportunities. They are always ready to work when ideas come. 1% success is enough for them. From 10 projects that they work on, maybe only one project will work.

Innovators constantly trying to realize one idea to another. They keep the momentum moving. They do not stay passive and wait to be assigned to the project.

Jordi Bruin, founder of Good Snooze, constantly works on his latest app ideas. From helping people to have good posture, to helping allergic people buy their groceries. From one project to another, he used to do rapid prototyping and quick market tests. He could move to a new project in a matter of days or weeks. (While some of us might wait for inspiration for months or years to work on something).

Over the last two years as an indie dev I’ve released more than 20 different apps and projects. More than 10 have been featured by Apple on the App Store because they solve problems in simple and innovative ways.

— Jordi Bruin

There are many reasons to keep productive. As innovators, find any aspect in your organization or company, or in your business, that you think could’ve been better. Pick that work on ideas, and solve it. Set your desk or laptop on fire. Go get to work!

Curious

This one could be the obvious one among other traits, but often overlooked. Albert Einstein once said that he had no special talent but was rather passionately curious.

Innovators are constantly curious about how to make something better. How to improve the current process. Is there any different approach should we try? Why does this thing happen?

Steve Jobs is great at this. In fact, curiosity is Steve Jobs’ greatest strength. As inc.com writes on their website: This Well-Known Steve Jobs Trait Is What Separates Successful People From Everyone Else.

Jony Ive once said about Steve:

He was without doubt the most inquisitive human I have ever met. His curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor.

Popular quotes by Steve Jobs about curiosity:

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

By following and practicing your curiosity, you will question the unknown, and learn new things, and that is where unpopular and creative ideas hide.

Speaking about creativity, let us move on to the next trait of innovator…

Open Minded

Literally, their mind is open. The mind is willing to gain new information in order to solve their problem. Willing to explore new ways and new approaches. Then they connect all that information in their mind.

Jony Ive, the former Chief Design Officer at Apple, is a great example of an innovator who showed open-mindedness. In an interview, he mentioned that Steve Jobs was the most inquisitive human he had ever met and that his curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor. This demonstrates how open-mindedness played a crucial role in Steve Jobs’ approach to innovation.

The key to innovation is being open-minded. Being open-minded means being receptive to different ideas, cultures, perspectives, forms of expression, and styles. It also means recognizing that our own viewpoint may not always be correct.

They are open to changes.

Creative

Innovators are creative. The word “creative” is rooted in the Latin word “creo” which means “to make or create something”, meaning the innovators are passionate about creating something new.

Their mindset is to create for themselves first. Then suddenly their creation is being by most people. They create not to impress others, but often it is just about fulfilling their curiosity, ambition, or solving their own problem.

They always challenge the “status quo”. They are quickly bored with the old solutions.

The innovators are often not wasting too much time in thinking about the ideas in their head, they jump right in to create, to make it real. Sometimes they seem rushing because before the idea is gone, they need to put it to work.

Classic example, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is known for his relentless pursuit of creating things that push the boundaries of technology and reshape industries. He co-founded Zip2, an online payment company that eventually became PayPal, revolutionizing online payments. Musk then founded SpaceX with the goal of making space travel more accessible and affordable. He also founded Tesla Motors to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Musk’s story is a testament to a person who keeps creating and making ideas come to life.

When we talk about creativity, one essential skill to have is the “skill of connecting the dots”. I dedicate that topic to a separate article.

Optimist

When you pessimist, you tend to stop, you want to quit. Innovators, the optimists, keep improving and creating something to make it better.

When they see a problem, they’re optimistic and believe that the problem could be solved. They don’t quit and easily give up when find problems. They see the world with optimism. They believe the future is going to be better if they do something. They always want to improve, and make better products or processes. When things don’t work, it triggers them to think another way around.

Steve Jobs once said:

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Bill Gates always wants to make the world a better place, he invests and funds lots of dollars for innovators around the globe, in such a wide range of projects, that tackle world’s big problems. His foundation commits hundreds of dollars to develop the Malaria vaccine. I bet he won’t do all of these if he pessimist about the future.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, are optimistic that we can eradicate all human diseases by 2100, so they built an organization to utilize Artificial Intelligence to study human cells.

— The optimist keeps trying and innovates, while pessimist critics then quit.

What makes them become such risk-takers? Because they’re an optimist.

Back to you...

Those are the top six traits and characteristics of an innovator that I learned. I believe there are more interesting characteristics you’ll find in these awesome types of people.

They are problem solver, always productive, exploring with curiosity, open-minded people, always creating something, and seeing the world with optimism.

Hope you enjoy the article. If you spot these behaviors in anybody you know, tell them that they are an innovator.

Much love to all innovators around the world, your works make the world a better place.