“A startup has to be original and different” – I said NO !!!

I was having conversation with my friends who all belong to rich families and have their own family business and we were discussing this book “Making breakthrough innovation happen“, which is a book about 11 indians who used ‘jugaad’ in their respective fields and pulled off the impossible. They have discussed companies like Titan, su-kam, Dainik bhaskar. Very inspiring book.

So my friends were saying that these 11 indians did something different that no one could think of and if you want to start your own business then you need to do something different. I was quietly listening to this conversation and some might say that i looked as if i was getting bored by the conversation but actually a lava of thoughts were bursting in my head.

‘ I don’t have any new idea which people might like. If i want to start my business, do i need a great idea? Where can i find this great idea which no one has thought of before?’ -I spent a whole week thinking of ideas, looking for inspiration, reading books, surfing net but couldn’t think of anything NEW. I was disappointed.

Thankfully i had a professor at that time who helped me get out of this situation. He told me something that i will always remember. He said that “you don’t have to come up with new idea as long as you can improvise an existing product or service. What is the point of having an idea for which people will not be willing to pay?” And every since then i have stopped looking for inspiration, i have started looking for opportunities.

I read this line on Forbes website yesterday and i truly believe that “The best entrepreneurs don’t come up with great ideas, they solve market needs”.

So this message goes out to all my fellow entrepreneurs, whoever tells you that ‘you need a great creative idea to start a business’, just ignore them and say ‘ i am gonna give a great creative SOLUTION to customer needs’. It makes life dramatically easier.

I am no expert in this field. Just wanted to share my thoughts. 🙂