Adaptation is the key to taking your business skills to the next level. Being able to read the situation and come up with ideal solutions is critical to entrepreneurs. Selling your vision in any given situation is much easier than selling for mere profit on the phone. Marketing with a toolbox of tactics to achieve your strategy is much better than following the same old tried and true marketing plan from 5 years ago.
Change is the only constant in a sea of struggle. Every business promises to be the next Facebook, Google, etc. Yet most will fall by the wayside and crumble. Because they lacked true vision. They could not improvise or change. In order to adapt we must be prepared to improvise and overcome obstacles to our success. Its not just about the metrics, or showing value, but creating relevant solutions to continuously changing problems.
Enter improvisation.
The art of improvisation. An act of instantaneous creation straight from your mind. Swirling thoughts cohering into a pattern of comprehensible ideas, stories and vision.
Have you wonder if you could sling out an idea right out of your posterior?
Craft a great story right onto your document? With no outline or formulated script?
You can.
Improvisation is something everyone can do. Humans can craft wonderful things with little time or notice. In order to do this, you always have to be prepared. ALWAYS. Below I will give you some pointers on how to make things on the fly and be a true improve master for your business.
Have The Urge
First you need the fire to create. It has to be a 24 hour machine, never turning off. Never let it go out. People will try and turn it off for you. Don't let them. This urge is much like a muse constantly whispering in your ear the secrets of the universe. When the urge to create sputters out and fades, we decay and die, from the inside. Get that urge to create and keep it going.
How?
By stoking the "inspiration" we all get. A brilliant idea will hit us and then we go into overtime working on it. This idea could have come from anywhere. Then we have to keep that energy going. That is the hard part.
Too often we let the fire die inside and we go back to a state of uninspired meh.
Serial Entrepreneurs , like James Altucher encourage idea sex and make a habit of writing down ten ideas a day. Others, like myself, will go for a walk and chew on two to three ideas read or seen on video. Exercise with the idea still inside is a great way to keep it going. Meditation or prayer can work wonders. When you think about this idea in new and different angles you feed the fires of creation. However you do it, you have to keep the fire going. It is a labor and it should not be allowed to go out.
Find what keeps your fire going and keep doing it.
It starts in the preparation
This point is crucial. You cannot be a top chef without quality ingredients. Business leaders, sales professionals and marketers need to read and research quality mentors. I personally read P.T. Barnum's Art of Money Getting Or, Golden Rules for Making Money and Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury. My weekly blog reads/ pod casts right now are Shane Parrish's Farnam Street Media, The Hustle, Gary Vaynerchuk, and James Altucher. This point is subjective of course. But usually you can find a consensus on what material is good and what sucks. Find great works of literature in your area of focus and read, read and READ.
For storytelling in novels or games you need to read great material. William Shakespeare's plays contain an excellent source of material for all types of storytelling. More modern examples such as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker and Anne Rice can show you a whole new world. It is OK to take a little from here and some from there. There is nothing "new" under the sun. But there are endless combinations of universal themes. My table-top game and novel series New Gods of Mankind takes inspiration from the previous authors and a few others such as H.P. Lovecraft.
You must sow the seeds of success in your downtime. Your habits will make you who you are. What you consume is what you will be. Read quality material.
Lots of practice and failure.
Do not fear failure. A majority of people who succeed in life do so out of blind luck or a crap-load of failures. Improvisation is a talent and a mindset. You must develop it. Start off by working with understanding friends. Or get your pet to be your audience. Most importantly get the urge out. This goes back to number one, stoking the fires of creation. You need to let out the flames and feed it more wood. So what if your cat complains about you business idea? Figure out why and try again. The beauty of life is there is a tomorrow. You can try again.
Be fearless.
This is not the same as being reckless. Or lacking the knowledge of fear. It is seeing the cliff, but knowing you have a glider. To be fearless you must know fear, consume it and then expel the feelings. Leave the feeling behind and bring forth your true self. When you tell your idea, your business story share your thoughts, do so in a way that is fearless. Get past the butterflies and swallow them. Once you start the first line, say the first lyric, sing the verse the noise of fear will dissipate. Never let it consume you.
To be fearless it means action. Plan on taking the first step. Concentrate on it.
Learn how to flow with events and actions.
Every business owner, salesman, marketer or creator should be a student of life. Watching events unfold should be one of your many pastimes. Absorb great prose and watch how great writers unfold events. See actions as artwork. The dancer and the illustrator both make rhythmic movements. Learn to see the patterns in all. Know that
notes made on a guitar form patterns like that of a
great novel. Our thoughts make more sense in coherent patterns. In fact, people get great satisfaction in identifying reoccurring themes. We are the
worlds best pattern-recognition machines and we gain pleasure from seeing the rhythm around us. When you create a business, game or story there is a pattern you need to see and
grok. Once you see the pattern, figure out how you can improve upon it.
When you see a broken pattern you will know instantly how to fix the problems so it will flow harmoniously.
A True Vision
In order to get to the final result you need to have a vision. Everything stated before from having the urge, preparation, practice, fearlessness and understanding flow leads to your vision. Getting this right will guide you in all actions and thoughts. Seeing your vision mentally is key. You should go to sleep and wake up with this in your forethought. The vision should always be larger than yourself. It should serve mankind and benefit others. Without this vision, your are just adapting to survive, flowing with the currents. You are a ship without a rudder or sails.
Obtain your true vision and stoke the fires of creation. Then watch the magic happen.
