Google's 8 Innovation Principles

Peter Diamandis shared these principles this week and will be talking about them more in his upcoming book BOLD next year. I love them. Feel free to write them on your wall or use them as a filter for your next big idea but, above all, don't ignore them.

1. Focus on the user: Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and many other successful entrepreneurs speak about the importance of building customer-centric businesses. Everything you do should solve a problem or fill a need for your "user."
2. Open will win: In a hyperconnected world with massive amounts of cognitive surplus, it's critical to be open, allow the crowd to help you innovate, and build on each other's ideas.
3. Ideas can come from everywhere: Ideas are everywhere these days, and tapping into the power of the crowd is the best way to succeed fast. This is the basis for XPRIZE itself – when you're looking for a breakthrough, turn to crowdsourcing for incredible ideas, insights, products and services.
4. Think big, but start small: This is the basis for Singularity University's 10^9+ thinking. You can start a company on Day 1 that affects a small group (with a minimally viable product), but aim to positively impact a billion people within a decade. As Peter says, the quickest way to be a billionaire is to do something that helps a billion people.
5. Never fail to fail: The importance of rapid iteration: Fail frequently, fail fast and fail forward.
6. Spark with imagination, fuel with data: Agility—nimbleness—is a key discriminator against the large and linear. And agility requires lots of access to new and often wild ideas and lots of good data to separate the worthwhile from the wooly. The most successful startups today are data-driven. They measure everything and use machine learning and algorithms to help them analyze that data to make decisions.
7. Be a platform: Look at the most successful companies getting billion-dollar valuations -- AirBnb, Uber, Instagram, Whatsapp -- they are the platform plays. Is yours?
8. Have a mission that matters. Do you or does your company have a massively transformative purpose (MTP)? Passion is fundamental to forward progress, and having an MTP is absolutely necessary to keep you moving during the most difficult times, keep you focused and attract the best talent to your company.

Google's MTP is to "organize the world's information," Singularity University's is to "positively impact the lives of a billion people in ten years," and XPRIZE's is "Making the impossible possible." What's yours?

What I Learned From My First Academic Conference

Last week I had the unique opportunity to present at my first academic conference. It was the 11th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference, which is the largest academic conference on social entrepreneurship in the world, with attendees coming from every corner of the globe. I was a bit surprised, to be honest, when our paper was chosen for the conference. Almost everyone else attending the conference was either a Ph.D. student or an established professor in the field. With the encouragement of my professor and advisor Dr. Aqeel Tirmizi we prepared and attended the conference together as colleagues. It was a lot of fun, we presented to a packed room with standing room only, and I was able to give away lots of incredible gifts like A Philosopher's Notes, Optimal Living 101, the B Corps Handbook and more thanks to the generosity of en*theos and B Lab who shared the goodies with me.

I've included my presentation below in case you want to check it out. In addition to Suncommon and New Media Group, who I highlighted in my original Leading Happiness research, I also conducted several new interviews for this presentation and added en*theos into the mix. Super exciting!

I loved the experience of the conference, learned a lot and received great feedback and support from professionals in our audience. Here are 5 of my favorite things I learned:

1. Mentors Can Become Colleagues - It was a lot of fun to work together with my advisor as a colleague. Spending hours together, driving, attending the sessions, preparing for our presentation, and standing up together to talk with the audience was great professional experience. I really admire Aqeel and look forward to working more together.
2. Give Away Goodies - It was great to be able to offer important books, tools and takeaways to our audience. It took a little planning (I had to request items a few weeks out) but I was amazed at how generous en*theos and B Lab were with supporting me and sharing resources. It felt great to give away such wonderful wisdom. I look forward to doing that again.
3. Relax and Try to Learn - The presentation before ours was all about why B Corps are not a great idea, which really got my heart racing, but ultimately things worked out great. Going in with an open mind, trying to learn as much as I could and being humble in the presence of such great people, was definitely the right approach.
4. Focus on Others - I'm so excited to see how much further I can carry this research into the field to make a difference and help improve people's lives. Through conferences, teaching classes at en*theos and much more, I have a lot I want to share to help people all around the world enjoy their work more, live happier and healthier lives and change the world.
5. Be Constructive - It's easy to be critical, especially when you are sitting in presentations or meetings all day. Instead of being critical, be constructive. Try to build something. Try to make something better. As the founders of B Corps said in our retreat last month, we stand for things, not against things. I love that. Be positive, focus on moving forward, and give people suggestions and support for making things better.

All in all I had a wonderful time and I'm very grateful to Aqeel and the conference for the opportunity to share and learn so much. Thank you also to Judy, our wonderful Peace Corps friend, who kindly hosted Tunga and I during our week on the northeastern coast.

I'm excited to see where things will go from here and to share more with you soon!

How Tunga Changed My Life (Spoken)

I'm playing with the idea of recording Enough as an audiobook and thought it would be fun to start with this chapter about my wife Tunga.

You can listen below, on soundcloud and also read the chapter here.

Thank you Mozart for the inspiration to record this!

The Happiness of Pursuit

  I'm very happy to say that I received an advanced copy of Chris Guillebeau's book, The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life, which launched today in bookstores around the country and I love it! I've included my brief video review below.

I've been a long-time admirer of Chris and had a chance to sit down with him to ask a few questions about his new book. Thank you Chris for taking the time to share some of your thoughts with us and for writing a really fantastic book.

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What inspired you to write this awesome book?

Well, first I spent 10 years visiting every country in the world. :) After that, I felt like I had a story to tell.

What was your favorite part of writing it?

Learning that I wasn't alone in questing. At first I heard stories of other travelers pursuing travel-related quests, but then I began to see that there were all kinds of other quests, too. It was great to see how people had applied the concepts of pursuing a big adventure in their own way.

What is a quest? Is it just a long trip or athletic pursuit?

A quest has a few specific characteristics: a clear goal, a real challenge, and a set of milestones along the way. Interestingly, while a quest is often an extended physical journey—like visiting every country in the world or circumnavigating the oceans in a small sailboat—there are many other kinds of quests as well. Over several years of research, I met activists, academics, artists, and others who chose to spend long amounts of time on something that mattered to them. I was interested in why they undertook such a mission, and what happened to them as they drew closer to their goal.

How do questers decide on what to pursue and what to avoid?

If you’re going to pursue a quest, you should choose something you’re really excited about. My quest was to visit every country in the world, mostly because I loved travel and enjoyed combining it with the structure of goal-setting. Others focus on their own hobbies or passions, turning them into the long-term pursuits: to knit 10,000 hats, to walk across America, to become a real-life ninja, and so on.

It also helps if there’s a deeper purpose to your quest. Many of the people I talked to for the book felt a sense of calling or mission, even if they weren’t religious. They were compelled; they simply had to pursue the quest. They knew if they didn’t, they would always regret it.

Is it important to document a quest?

One of the key themes of quests is that they must be measurable. They must have an end goal—you have to be able to say, “This is what I’m working toward and I’ll complete it when x happens.” Documenting the steps along the way provides tremendous momentum, since you can see how far they’ve come and how far still remains.

In my case I used a Wikipedia article that contained a list of every country. I copied it into Evernote and whenever I visited a new country, I’d place a big X beside it. As the years went by, the number of Xs grew until there were only a few places I hadn’t visited. Finally, I was able to visit those places as well. Just having that file gave me a sense of urgency as I made my plans and set out on another Round-the-World trip or 30-hour series of flights.

What happens to someone after they’ve completed the quest or achieved their goal?

Most of the time there's a feeling of accomplishment combined with a sense of melancholy or even alienation. Quests are complicated! Very often, much of the identity of the quester lies in the quest itself. The best path forward is usually to take some time to reflect on the journey. Then—whenever the time is right—you’ll need a new quest.

How can people get involved in the amazing work you are doing?

I'm happy to connect with them on my blog or on their preferred social network. Oh, and I'm also doing a 40 city tour for the book. Please join us!

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I encourage everyone to go check out The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau, you won't regret it!