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We often hear entrepreneurs attribute their success to “gut feeling”. We often heard people persuade us “to listen to the heart”.  Have we ever wondered what the gut feeling really is, scientifically? It turns out, as Simon Sinek’s book “Start with why” explores, it is more of a biological fact than “feeling”. In fact he wrote the whole book and build a whole business to “inspire people to get inspired”, based on this biological fact. I have so far covered the first 6 chapters of the book and I can say this is by far the best business book I have ever read, beyond tipping point, built to last etc.. Why? Because it’s relevant to us entrepreneurs, and it’s actionable.

So, this week, the 4th week since I started the series “daily things to do as an entrepreneur”, I am practicing “gut feeling” to all my ideas and see which one sticks the most.

Step 1: Read “start with why” by Simon Sinek

Get the book “Start with why” and read it, at least the first 6 chapters. If you can’t wait for book to arrive, watch this interview with Simon Sinek to get a glimpse of what he has to say. To us entrepreneurs, building something “people want” and “trust” is the key. To get there, we have to start with the basic: set out to define our mission to see if it resonates with average people. Simon examined the way Apple defined/built its first iPod as “1000 songs in your pocket (wherever you go)” instead of “a mp3 player” (which is what iPod really is). It feels “right”, people hence love it. As entrepreneurs, we must find our mission.

Step 2: Finding your mission

I often hear entrepreneurs succeeded by developing something out of his/her personal hobby or passion. It intimated me a lot because I could hardly find any hobby that I am truly passionate about. But I am over it. I now realize that finding your startup mission or cause is different from finding your hobby or passion. We may never have a true passion or hobby per se, we definitely should and can find our entrepreneurial mission, ie. why we are doing our project, and why people should use thing we build. That mission has to be personal to average people, it has to strike people’s gut feeling, it has to “feel right”.

Step 3: Evaluate all of your ideas using “gut feeling” test

With “evernotes” iphone App, I collected bunch of ideas on regular basis, they started as “what it does” for people. But now I throw question “why should people use it” and see if the answer comes natural, feels right, before I even consider to spend time thinking about how and what to do to build them.

Step 4: Practice makes perfect

Practicing step 3 often enough, you will soon discover that entrepreneurial projects passing your “gut feeling” test all bear certain common traits. It’s no longer a matter of “if people would use it?” (because you will find people who like and use your product), it has become a matter of “how many people will use it” (or market size problem because your product may only address a small problem)

Step 5: Carry on

Once you have defined mission, everything else become crystal clear. It’s time to get down to work, finding partners, hiring, building, or DIY. It’s only the beginning.

I am having fun go through this steps, I hope it’s helpful for you as well.

Since last week, I have done a few things differently from norm (or my intuition) to keep my mind occupied, focused and clean. A clean mind is a clear mind with more focus. Early entrepreneurs tend to have lot of ideas going on at the same time, I did following and found they are incredibly helpful for me to be upbeat and focus.

1. Focus

I already said I am working on a personal recommendation system. It sounds easy but it is a profound field that challenges many scholars. By using both Google, Aardvark, Linkedin etc., I have discovered many folks who have similar interests, I am also able to have deeper understanding about the field, and how mathematics can be applied

2. Talk (to smart people)

Usually, Entrepreneurs are loners, in some sense. They keep heads down and hide themselves in the cave to crank out great things they believe in. Is that enough? Since last week, I have started to chat with smart people more. It was not anything serious. But the results were astounding. The wisdom from combined brain power is exponential to ones own.

3. Organize

Starting from my home page at igoogle.com, which was a big mass of blog feeds from variety of blogs I subscribe. It kept growing and getting messier everyday, to the point that I don’t really know what I am looking at. So starting last week, I have re-organized igoogle feed reader into three columns with thought leaders’ blog focusing on entrepreneurship, technology trend, and niche fields. After a few glance, I immediately have a healthy dose of entrepreneurial insights, technology news, and new development in the niches field. I find it sets me in a great mood with more confidence and happier attitude. I recommend everyone do this exercise

4. No rush

Entrepreneurs have sense of urgency, they are the people trying to get stuff out of door and “make it”. I used to be always like that but it has not really worked. As Simon Sinek, the author of Start with Why said to me “I firmly believe that struggle is the single greatest source of innovation. And entrepreneurs are the ones who innovate from struggle. Entrepreneurs solve problems then share the solution.” and struggle is the reason entrepreneurs do what we do, it’s not for money, it’s for the “why” or the “cause” that are personal to ourselves. And when one does things to the right cause, one can not rush it. As I pointed out, the biggest struggle these years for me is to find the right people to do the right things, and this struggle is leading me to what I am working on.

5. Team

Wisdom is an exponential function of number of intelligent, experienced individuals. Instead of working alone, searching and inspiring people to work with you, even it’s a struggle to find the right people. If you have not found the right people, read what other successful entrepreneurs are doing. Andrew warner’s mixergy, and Paul Graham’s website, in particular the incubator Y-combinator that he started, are great places to get inspired, stay focused, maybe even stay connected with potentially like-minded people.

6. Read

Entrepreneurs tend to think they are smart enough to do things on their own, they don’t have to go to classes, they don’t have to read books. They are the ones who write the history, isn’t it!

The short answer is “No”. Last week, I broke my reading norm which tends to be fictions, bought two books from Amazon (not kindle version, I still love the feeling of flipping the real pages next to the fireplace in a cloudy day), one is Simon Sinek’s “start with why”,  the other is Paul Graham’s “hackers and painters”.

I think above things are what I did slightly differently from what I usually do on weekly/daily basis. And I feel good about it. So, I encourage you do a few things slightly differently, get some new flavor injected into your life, I think you might like it.