C2B: ideas are borne, forged...and founded.

Your next ideas are hidden in unanswered questions.

Hi friends, 👋🏾

Happy Tuesday. Welcome to Issue 3 of Classroom-2-Boardroom. 💯

Today, we dive into the lifecycle of ideas. 🕺🏾🕺🏾

Ideas are borne, forged…and founded.

Usually, we say XYZ “founded” an idea. But really, while this statement is true, it’s incomplete. 🙅🏾‍♂️

The founding is usually the arrival of the idea, not the beginning. 👌🏾

It all starts like this: 👇🏾

• A thought (the birth),

• A recurring thought (the forging),

• An idea (the founding).

Many to-be-ideas usually go through these three stages (at times, severally). But one stage is highly important—the forging stage. 💯🎯

It’s crystal clear that you can’t skip the first two no matter what.🙅🏾‍♂️

That’s the stage where you begin to have multiple questions—some with Googleable responses and some with not.🙂

But here are a few unwritten rules- try to break them. 🕺🏾

Your next ideas are hidden in unanswered questions. 💯

👉🏾 And like Paul Graham said in his essay, “Unanswered questions can be uncomfortable things to carry around with you. But the more you're carrying, the greater the chance of noticing a solution — or perhaps even more excitingly, noticing that two unanswered questions are the same.”

Sometimes you carry a question for a long time. Great work often comes from returning to a question you first noticed years before — in your childhood, even — and couldn't stop thinking about. People talk a lot about the importance of keeping your youthful dreams alive, but it's just as important to keep your youthful questions alive.”🎯🚀💯

👉🏾If you can’t answer it or can’t find anyone else who can provide a clear answer, chances are there’s something worth exploring in there.

Unanswered questions are recipes for new ideas. Answered questions are reflections of old ideas. 🎯

Remember, just because you can’t answer it doesn’t mean there’s no answer 🙅🏾‍♂️.

A simple Google search can bust your bubble 🤒—but it can also help you question your questions which ends up leading to more unanswered questions. 🫡

The issue is most people don’t carry unanswered questions for too long or even return to them 🙅🏾‍♂️.

And tell you what? The longer you carry them, the greater your chances of noticing a blind spot. 👌🏾🚀

As Voltaire rightfully said, “No problem (unanswered question) can withstand the assault of sustained thinking”💯🎯

You gotta be comfortable with unanswered questions but not so comfortable leaving them unanswered. ✨👌🏾

Be open…to failing. 🎯

This sounds relatively simple yet surprisingly hard to do 🙅🏾‍♂️. The more open you are, the greater your chances of stumbling on The Idea 👌🏾.

But also, that means being open to things not working🙅🏾‍♂️- being open to failure. Being comfortable with failure but not too comfortable as to fail backwards. 🙅🏾‍♂️

Do Odd Things…no pun intended. 💯🎯

For real though, not only do you want to go after “unpopular opinions” but you also have to be comfortable with being “unpopular” or doing “unpopular things”. 🕺🏾🎯

👉🏾 If you just graduated from high school and you told someone that you want to build a fintech platform to provide a cashless experience for students, no doubt, you’re gonna get side-eyed. ✨

It’s odd. It’s not normal. Even the Collision brothers started Stripe in college, not high school. 👌🏾

👉🏾Doing odd things comes with a lot of puzzles and uncertaintities— you know the things you know and you don’t know the things you don’t know 🙅🏾‍♂️. Yet, your unknown unknowns don’t stop you—they fuel you. 🔥🔥

It’s all about the puzzles—the confusion, the bewilderment. 🤦🏾‍♂️

But my friends, to borrow from Paul Graham, 🤌🏾 the more puzzled you are, the better.

Or the more odd you are, the better as long as the things you’re odd about are important and no one else understands them or willing to paid attention. 🙂

Your difference is your critical success factor 🫡. You’ll only be recognized, accepted, and celebrated for your differences—that which make you odd. 🙅🏾‍♂️✨

So my friends, don’t be reluctant to be odd, and unconventional. 👌🏾

Progress Over Perfection 🎯💯

👉🏾 Reading 3 pages of a book every day is 1095 pages in one year—that’s about 3 books

👉🏾 Writing 2 pages of a book every day is 730 pages in one year—that’a about two published books every year.

👉🏾 Working on your idea for 5 hours every day, 6 hours on weekend is 124 hours at the end of the month. That’s like working for 5 five days non-stop.

Bottomline is—don’t underestimate the power of growth. A growth mindset can often times beat a great mindset. 🙅🏾‍♂️👌🏾

That something is incomplete doesn’t mean it’s flawed 🙅🏾‍♂️. Slow is not the enemy of progress. 💯

Your ideas are borne, forged, founded— again, and again. 🎯🚀🎯

That’s it, my friends. Next week, we’ll dive into what comes after ideation.

But before we go, here’s our quote of the week.👇🏾

👉🏾The longer you do nothing, the harder it becomes to do something👈🏾

Until next time,

Don’t Forget to be Awesome,

Dulra ❤️

Founder/CEO, Dot.