Jim McKelvey | The Art of Audacity and Humility

In today’s episode, we cover the innovation stack with Jim McKelvey. Jim is an entrepreneur most known for cofounding Square and the author of The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time.

Innovation is not something that happens when you want it to, but when you’re backed into a corner and innovation is the only way out - so what can you do to prepare yourself and your company to make sure you’re in the best place to innovate when the time comes?

What to Listen For What does it mean to get comfortable with discomfort and why is it important if you want to survive in a rapidly changing world? What is the difference between an entrepreneur and a business person? How can you tell if an idea is a billion dollar idea? What does it mean for an idea to be a billion person idea? How does your ability to build relationships influence your ability to build a business? Why is it important to be both audacious and humble as an entrepreneur? What is linguistic gravity and why is it important when trying to convey the significance of an idea you have? What is an innovation stack and why is it integral to your success as an entrepreneur? What is LaunchCode and how is it improving the industry of software development?

Being an entrepreneur requires a certain amount of comfort with the uncomfortable. As an entrepreneur, you are doing something that has never been done before, or you’re doing something that you’ve never done before, which means there won’t be a clear cut solution to every problem you encounter. If you are not comfortable with being uncomfortable, it will be more difficult to solve the hard problems and you will be more likely to walk away after being uncomfortable for too long. The most successful entrepreneurs appreciate the feeling of discomfort because they recognize that is where the real learning and innovation takes place.

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Resources from this Episode

The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey

Jim McKelvey’s website

LaunchCode - “Land Your Dream Job in Tech”

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