INTEL SOURCE LINK: Inc.com
One afternoon in Oregon, apparently in 2006, artist Eric Singer contemplated a piece of orange Madrone wood from his neighbor’s yard and had an “Aha!” moment. Why not combine wood and sunglasses? He hand-carved his first pair of frames, added a couple of rusty hinges and some cheap lenses, and wore his odd new glasses everywhere, I’ve read. He received so many requests he started carving frames, from the back of his car. Today Shwood glasses are so popular the company just won Dell’s America’s Favorite Small Business contest. Singer continues to innovate—now using not only exotic woods to make the frames, but also wood laminated from broken skateboard decks.
This kind of ingenuity drives small businesses everywhere, and sometimes leads to big successes. Ted Turner and Richard Branson fit the stereotype of the individualist who has a wild idea, pursues it, and makes millions. But you don’t need an outsized personality to be a successful entrepreneur. You should create opportunities by recognizing other people’s needs that so far no one else has identified—and then finding a way to fulfill and market your solutions. Fortunately, your brain is built to be creative.
Truly innovative thinking happens differently for different people. For you, it may happen in a “Eureka!” moment (like Einstein’s theory of relativity), or it may take years of trial and error and painstaking research (Gregor Mendel discovering genetics).
•If you are a right-brained type who enjoys mental leaps, you may have had a great idea while you were making pancakes or washing your face.
•If you are a left-brained thinker who prefers research, you may have come to your most creative conclusions after studying your data.
Research reveals that for either type, the brain does a lot of preparatory thinking. In one study, volunteers were given word puzzles as their brains were scanned. The left-brained thinkers used methodical reasoning to reach their conclusions. Often right-brained thinkers had an “aha!” moment when they realized an answer, but they could not explain how they got it. It turns out during the “blank” period while the right brain wanders, it is actually performing complex problem-solving just under the surface of our awareness. One study was able to predict who would solve a problem with an “Aha!” insight by detecting neural activity in the right front cortex up to eight seconds before the answer actually dawned.
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