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Adopt ideas
My friend Dmitriy from the Ukraine told a story about how his mother became successful in
business. In the 1990s, Dmitr iy’s mo ther Ir ina had a dr eam to o pen a phar macy and mo r tg ag ed her
apartment to purchase a stock of pharmaceuticals. Irina was selling them in a kiosk until she saved
enough money to open a pharmacy. Irina went to Germany for 2 weeks and visited hundreds of
phar macies ar o und the co untr y. She o bser ved ho w phar macies o per ate in Ger many and wr o te do wn
all the interesting ideas she noticed.
After coming home, Irina adopted these ideas to the Ukrainian market and implemented them in her
o wn phar macy. After a few mo nths it became the best and mo st po pular phar macy in the to wn. No w
she owns over 20 pharmacies, lives in a huge house and is a multimillionaire.
mas Edison, one o f the g r eatest inventor s o f the 20th centur y, believed that seeing analog ies is
Tho
key to creating successful ideas. He said, “Make it a habit to keep on the lookout for novel and
interesting ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea needs to be original only in its
adaptation to the problem you are working on.”
One of the most popular TV shows in the Ukraine is Ukraine’s Got Talent. In this show, amateur or
unkno wn per fo r mer s sho w their talents o n stag e. They ar e judg ed by 3 celebr ities and the audience
votes. The final show of the first season was watched by 18.6 million people, which is more than 40%
of Ukraine’s population. Do Ukrainians care that the format of the show was copied and adopted from
America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent? No, the only thing they care is that it is very interesting
to watch.
Constantly think about how good ideas can be adopted from other countries, other businesses or
products. Irina’s story isn’t unique; enormous fortunes have been made by adopting existing ideas.
