Content:
- Self introduction by speaker
- Learning from Success and Failure
- What is entrepreneurship?
Process:
It was the first lesson of the programme, which would last for a term. It was our first time meeting the speaker, Mr Roderick Chia. He first started with a self-introduction, which impressed me alot. Mr Roderick Chia is an extremely successful man by many means, having come from a humble background to winning a total of 5 Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Awards. I could not wait to learn from this man and had many burning questions in my mind. How did he get the innovation to create solutions? How did he find support and means to work on his projects? How did his successes work out? I was determined to get into the mind of such a prestiged speaker and to learn from his experiences.
Learning from success and failure
The first lesson he taught us was: Not all problems are worth solving. Mr Chia explained that in his many successes, most in fact turned out to be failures in their own different ways. I was perplexed by this statement but not long after, I was able to understand where he was coming from.
Is there a diminishing need for solution?
Many problems exist today. However, some of the problems might no longer exist in the near future due to the improvements in technology. Improvements in technology can alter our lifestyles and cause some current goods or habits to be redundant and out of date. The solutions to such problems will soon be redundant just as the problems are, and your success will not make an impact. A personal example of Mr Chia was when he created an ellipse compass. Soon enough, there was no more need for an ellipse compass due to the increasing prevalence of computers, and Mr Chia's invention became redundant as well.
The second lesson he taught us: Do you have the ability to bring the solution to the market? An invention would turn out to make little impact on the lives of people if it could not be brought to the market, even if it is extremely useful and revolutionary. When creating an item, we should not only focus on the product, but on the ultimate end in mind: bringing it to most people to impact lives. Hence, not only should we create a working product, we must create one that is simple to manufacture and can be reproduced on a large scale to increase accessibility to people. If our product cannot play a part in the peoples' lives and are just hidden in a workshop, where is the success in our product?
The third lesson: Would the anticipated problem ultimately surface? Thinking back to the first lesson, many of us would try to predict future problems and create solutions, to avoid creating redundant solutions with diminishing need. So did Mr Chia, but Mr Chia met yet another failure. The anticipated problem did not surface and hence his invention was also redundant again.
When trying to innovate and create solutions, we should always think back to the three lessons above to ensure that we are on the right track. But how do we identify a problem worth solving?
We need to:
Understand our strengths and weaknesses
We have to understand our strengths and weaknesses before we start a project. This is to prevent us from embarking on a project we are unable to complete, which will take up our time pointlessly. It will also allow us to understand our capabilities so we can successfully embark on a project we can complete. Understanding our strengths and weaknesses can allow us to work on our weaknesses and improve ourselves.
Understand the resources we have or can obtain
This is also for us to embark on a project we can complete, and not one where we will be unable to complete due to limitations in resources.
What is your passion, hobby, interest, skill etc?
Without interest or passion, we will not have motivation to push through and eventually succeed.
What is the value proposition of the solution and how big a problem are you solving?
Developing strong value propositions not only makes it easier to connect with target audiences but it establishes a foundation upon which a company's marketing and sales activities can be built upon. It also provides employees with a consistent and cohesive way to talk about what they are doing.
What is the trend of the market globally?
We have to understand the global trend to create a product that will be accepted by the public and can be marketed and sold well.
Sources of inspiration
For an inventor looking for sources of inspiration or support, he or she can turn to:
Crowdfunding sites
Concept Design
Interest Groups
and many other sources too.
Reflection:
I find it very meaningful that the school is inventing a speaker to give us talks on these content. These knowledge can be very useful not just in our future, but also currently. For example, for our CID4+ these year, we create products to help solve problems in society. We can constantly refer to the lessons given to us by the speaker to evaluate our own work and it can be used to ensure that we stay on the right track, not creating solutions that would be redundant in the future or creating projects we cannot achieve. These lessons can not just be integrated into our CID, but our lives as well. Before doing anything, we should create a framework for ourselves to evaluate the impact of our actions so that we can do the right things. We can create a thought framework for ourselves that can help us in thinking and learning too. Having a framework can help us in many ways by self-regulating our thoughts and actions.
Personal Development:
Personally, I will retain and use the knowledge I have learnt from this talk in multiple facets of my life as I believe that it can be helpful to me. It is a rare opportunity to have such a successful speaker present to us and share his invaluable knowledge. Another point that the speaker pointed out was that we should look for a problem before finding a solution, and not look for a problem with a solution in mind. Talking to Mr Zhou, I had realised that it was the exact mistake my team had made with our first proposal. We had the solution, the creation of the glow with UV light, and we sought to fit our solutions inside problems which did not exist in real life, such as the need for a UV clock. The lesson has definitely taught me alot and I look forward to the next few lessons.
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