Page 106 - The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas

Become an accidental entrepreneur

One day in 1928 a Scottish biologist, Alexander Fleming, forgot to clean his laboratory before
going on vacation. In 2 weeks, when Alexander returned from vacation, he saw that one of the
staphylo co ccus cultur e plates in the co r ner o f the labo r ato r y was co ntaminated by a str ang e fung us,
which pr evented the g r o wth o f staphylo co ccus bacter ia. After examinatio n o f the fung us, he no ticed
that it produced a substance that killed many disease-causing bacteria. This observation led Alexander
to develop penicillin, an antibiotic that made one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine and
allowed the treatment of such dangerous illnesses as meningitis, gonorrhea and syphilis.

Penicillin, pacemakers, plastic, vulcanized rubber, Teflon, corn flakes, saccharin and numerous other
inventions were made by accident. In business, successful ideas are often created by chance after a
mistake, failure or coincidence, and your goal is to increase the probability of this chance many
times.

Talk to as many people as you can, travel, experiment in business, read books, do different hobbies
and try everything you haven’t tried before. Coming up with a successful business idea by accident is
the same as winning a lo tter y. Ever y life exper ience yo u have g ives yo u an additio nal lo tter y ticket.
T he mo r e active and ver satile yo ur life is, the hig her ar e yo ur chances to win a cr eative lo tter y and
stumble upon a successful business idea.

Many people lose opportunities that life gives them, because they blindly follow their preconceived
plan. Creative geniuses look forward to accidental discoveries and once they notice something
interesting, drop everything they do to study it.

Appr eciate all ideas that co me to yo ur head even if they ar e ir r elevant to what yo u wo r k o n. Lo o k
forward to accidental discoveries and once you win the creative lottery, do everything to save,
analyze and implement the successful business idea that came to your head. Be sure that some of these
accidental ideas will have the same impact on your business as penicillin had on medicine.