Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Innovation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtjatz9r-Vc) presented a very humorous and delightful way of explaining the process that happens behind the world of innovation through ten key points. He reminded me of many things, and I have taken his words and put my own spin based on my learnings.

Firstly, I must position myself to start with the desire to make meaning, rather than tons of money. For example, Google, Amazon, and YouTube did not start to make a billion dollars. Instead, they started because they wanted to democratize information, democratize commerce, and democratize video production, respectively. They each became billion-dollar giants because their meaning applied to so many people.

Then, pick a mantra - 2 or 3 words that describe the purpose, not a paragraph mission statement. My personal mantra currently is live cheap, fail fast. I am looking for ways where I can live sustainably (cheaply), so I can have many more chances to try many things and fail fast to learn and grow from them.

Thirdly, go back to first principles and revolutionize, not just make evolutions. We may be able to get ice by cutting ice from the ice lakes and make 10% improvements and evolution by building a central factory to store and transfer them conveniently. However, the revolution comes where we keep the functionality - the ability to make ice - without the restrictions of time, space, and season. Hence, refrigerators. Therefore, define what you do by its function, not its form.

Fourthly, if you want to build great products, roll the DICEE. A great product is deep (multi-functional), intelligent (understands user needs and pain points), complete (has a comprehensive ecosystem), empowering (they make you creative and powerful, they become seamless and one with you), elegant (great user interface). Such as Apple.

Although, don’t worry, be crappy! Revolutionary products are revolutionary, but at first, will have many mistakes and imperfections. If Apple decided for the storage, CPU, graphics card to perfect and evolve to a better standard, it will never have assembled the Macintosh. If you are not embarrassed about what you ship, you did not ship fast enough. You just have to churn, churn, churn, and evolve the product.

Then, when you ship products, let 100 flowers blossom. You may start with a definition for your product; however, many times, unexpected people can use the products in unforeseen ways. Therefore, it’s essential to start with an estimated positioning and branding but also be open and flexible about letting users define the product.

Another thing we should keep in mind is controversies are great! Truly revolutionary products are either loved or hated by people, and that’s okay. Some people (some are very established, famous, and successful) may be the haters and criticize all day of why your product wouldn’t work, however, don’t let them bring you down. Many of the rich and famous often are not necessarily smart, but most definitely lucky. However, you need to try many times to become lucky, as at the end of the day, it’s a matter of chance - live cheap, fail fast.