[MUSIC PLAYING]
As you're coming up with your
product or your service or your idea,
it is important, especially
in the early days,
that you maintain an open
mind rather than rushing
too quickly into a prescribed solution.
I will give you a great example.
Everybody knows how to draw a vase.
So why don't you go through this
process, take a few minutes,
and just draw a vase.
Now, I've done this hundreds of
times with hundreds of people.
And in every single
circumstance, people tend
to draw a very prototypical
picture of what a vase looks like.
Now, think if you ask that
question a slightly different way.
What if I asked you design
or draw a way that we can
enjoy fresh cut flowers in our home.
Now, I've also done this many,
many times with many students.
And in almost no
circumstances have I ever
seen two people come up
with the exact same answer.
This is why it's fundamentally
critical that you
learn how to take a step back
and frame the problem that you're
trying to solve it in a way that
gives you brand new insights.
The world renowned design firm,
IDEO, has an expression for this.
They say "Fall in love with
the problem, not the solution."
I'm never more alive than when I'm
in a DAW and setting up a song, ever.
You know, I mean and it's so
engaging and creative and alive
that that's what I like.
I don't really like the end product
where I take it to the market.
You know, that's not my
goal in this work anymore.
It's to be doing it.
And every time that I do it, to go
"Wow, I don't know where this is going
and I like it."
Today, we make something, and
we say we want to build a chair.
So if I said this is a task, we're
going to go build a chair today.
Well, I've never built a chair.
So let me get all the tools.
And let me get all the things
together that you're thinking,
because you don't want to fail.
You're so afraid to fail.
But I think that if you were
encouraged along the way,
and even now if we can teach
people this kind of idea of making,
just get in the process.
Put together a chair.
Oh, that didn't work.
Well, I failed.
OK, fine.
So what do we have to fix?
You'll arrive at an incredible solution.
And you'll have learned all these things
along the way that are so priceless.
The term and the notion,
discovery cooking,
or whatever you like to call it
these days, some people even call it
molecular gastronomy, what it really
is about, right, it's very basic.
It's about starting every day
with no preconceived notions.
About what can be done
and what can't be done.
It's about saying what if
I could make a poached egg,
but I didn't want it to taste like egg.
I didn't want there to be
any egg involved whatsoever.
But I want it to have the
texture of a poached egg.
I want it to eat like a poached egg.
I want it to break the yolk on
the inside like a poached egg.
I want to eat it on toast.
But at the end of day when
you eat it, the white tastes
like Alfredo sauce and then
the yolk tasted like mushrooms.
What if I could do that?
Starting every day with no preconceived
notions and not saying well,
you know, an egg will set in a certain
way because of a certain thing.
But challenging that notion.
And if someone were to
tell you that no, no,
no that can't be done,
using that as inspiration.
When you are starting something rather
than starting with a very narrow view,
rather than prescribing a solution,
take a step back and ask yourself,
"What is the problem
that I'm trying to solve?
Whom am I trying to serve?"
Because in learning how to pay
attention to those answers,
and in really carefully
listening, you will often
come up with insights
about your customer base,
about the marketplace in
which you're operating in.
So the advice I most give
aspiring entrepreneurs
when they want to know what to do is
to start and to do something, get out
of your way and just go.
Engaging with customers and getting
out and seeing the world is critical.
And it's really essential to
get out and talk to people.
And young students are
notoriously bad at that early on.
But I also want to be careful not
to squash their own internal light,
if you will.
Sometimes they do have
the answer inside.
And if they go spend too much
time listening to customers,
they're going to get distracted.
The other piece of advice is not
to listen literally to customers,
but to be very empathetic with
what's going on in the world
where their customers are interacting.
So you can see that sometimes
stepping back and asking yourself,
"What is the problem that
I'm trying to solve,"
it can lead not only to very
interesting and brand new
ideas of addressing that
problem, but often it
can lead to critical insights that
make the difference between success
or failure.
