Lesson: Creatively Entrepreneurial with Carl Nordgren

Step #5 Action Bias: Great entrepreneurs don't wait

There are three components to the generative ways entrepreneurial mindset. The first is to be intentional, that by simply declaring that from this moment forward I am going to be the most creative entrepreneurial person I can be, puts that in motion. And puts that in motion immediately by bringing you to the second component which is it helps you begin to develop creative perspectives on the world.

When I write that on our board I always underline that last "S," create perspectives to keep, continually remind myself that it isn't developing a perspective. I want to have multiple creative perspectives on a problem or an opportunity. The more unique views I take of that creative opportunity, the more likely I'll find the aspect of it, the opportunity that I want to and can most effectively develop.

The third component is a biased for action and I neatly attached to that the corollary of ready-fire-aim, because for too long we've been too strongly influenced by a corporate mindset that says, when your going to engage in a creative project, the first thing you need to do is create the plan. And it makes sense in a corporate world that maybe that's what we have to do, right? You can't have multiple creative initiatives taking place in your organization without budgets and you can't get to a budget without a plan. So it makes sense in that world perhaps that we need to place the priority on the plan.

Unfortunately, too many of us have learned from that model and try to apply that in our entrepreneurial life and think that first thing we need to do is create the plan. No, the first thing you need to do is begin to build something, to begin to create creative capital with this bias for action and by acting in the world that you want to serve.

The ready-aim-fire bias comes from the generative way. The generative way, it has bias for action, and I don't think there's a better way to begin to express that bias for action than through ready-fire-aim. So often we think that it's about creating the plan. That's where I need to begin, is creating a plan of what it is that I am going to do. Ready-fire-aim says, no, just get started. Just take a step. You have an inclination, you have an interest. You have a gut feel about an opportunity. You have a predilection to explore a certain area. Get started. Just engage in action.

The world that you're going to be operating, the world where you're trying to shape this opportunity is a complex world. Everything is constantly changing. Everything is constantly adapting. Everything is constantly emerging. If you're static and trying to create a plan, while everything else is changing, it's inevitable that your plan is going to be wrong, the minute that you have completed your plan. Instead you need to be active in the world. You need to be participating and the minute you take that first step, the first ready-fire step, you'll be an observer of what's occurring and you'll be so much smarter about this opportunity immediately. You'll get this organic true wisdom of what's happening when you become a participant in that world.

So then you calibrate, right? You see what has happened. And then maybe you start to become a little bit more discerning in your next step because of what you've just learned. But the importance is that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. So don't you want to get those natural powers of physics working on your behalf, since early success in any kind of entrepreneurial creative adventure, is very much a momentum at play. So let's get that momentum. Let's start to create. Let's not plan on what we are going to build. Let's begin to build and see what happens and then we're smarter and then we can continue from there.