Page 144 - The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas

Develop a creativity habit

Anders Ericsson studied young violinists and pianists in their early twenties at the Music Academy of
West Berlin. He asked music professors to split students into 3 groups: exceptional students most
likely to become international solo performers, very good students most likely to join the world’s
best orchestras and least able students most likely to become music teachers.

Ericsson discovered that students in all groups had remarkably similar backgrounds and the only
difference between them was the amount of practice time. By the age of 20, exceptional students had
practiced on average 10,000 hours; good pianists and violinists 8,000 hours and those most likely to
become music teachers 4,000 hours.

Everybody who was in the elite group of top musicians had spent on average 10,000 hours practicing
during their lifetime and everybody who had spent at least 10,000 hours practicing was in the elite
group of top musicians. Further research of top chess players, dancers, salespeople and scientists
confirmed that the amount of practice rather than talent makes a person an expert in his or her
domain. Ericsson wrote, “The differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-
long persistence of deliberate effort to improve performance.”

The same is true in creativity. The more experience you have in creating ideas, the faster your brain
will make connections and generate successful business ideas. To become an exceptional thinker you
need to develop a habit of thinking about ideas daily.

Practicing ideas generation is easier than playing chess, violin or piano because the majority of
thinking is done by the creative brain while you are not consciously thinking. However, to activate
your creative brain you need to think about ideas that can improve your life regularly for at least 15
minutes.

The more you practice thinking creatively, the less time it will take to come up with a great business
idea and the more you will enjoy the process. After some time you will become a world-class thinker
and exceptional ideas will come to your head in abundance.