The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten podcast.

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to use inspiration to your advantage in your startup - a topic that is rarely discussed in the business world. They also talk about how “too much inspiration” can be a problem and whether your moments of inspiration should take priority over an existing strategy.  

During a moment of inspiration, you may feel as if you’ve come up with a great idea that could really benefit your startup, and you may feel the urge to share it with as many people as possible.  However, ideas are fragile and although it may feel like an “ah-ha” moment, there might be major pitfalls that can occur if you actually executed the idea.

Steli and Hiten talk about a more deliberate approach to dealing with moments of inspiration. They argue that, at all times, your focus must be on what’s important for your business right now. And only after that should you move on to more creative ideas that can enhance your startup.

Tune into this week’s episode of The Startup Chat to learn what inspiration means for a startup, as well as Steli and Hiten’s top tips for dealing with those unplanned, inspirational moments whenever they occur.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today's topic: how to use inspiration to your advantage.

00:30 Why we’re talking about this topic.

01:14 The dictionary definition of inspiration.

01:56 Typical moments of inspiration in the startup world.

02:17 How to deal with moments of inspiration.

03:26 Some tools you can use for writing down your moments of inspiration.

04:27 Why writing down your moment of inspiration is a good idea.

06:09 How to decide if you should follow up on an inspiring idea or stay committed to a strategy you’re already executing.

15:25 How “too much inspiration” can be a problem.

16:04 How to make sure you keep being inspired at work.

3 Key Points:

When inspiration hits, write it down.

It’s better to write down your ideas than to just talk about them.

When you’re truly inspired, when you have an “ah-ha moment”, it’s an awesome feeling

[0:00:00]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody this is Steli Efti.

 

[0:00:02]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah, and today on the Startup Chat, we're gonna talk about how to use inspiration to your advantage. We like to talk about more than just sales and marketing.

 

[0:00:12]

Steli Efti: We just wanna bullshit and chat about business and life, and hopefully while we're doing that, provide a lot of value to people.

 

[0:00:17]

Hiten Shah: The world's best business podcast.

 

[0:00:19]

Steli Efti: Oh, shit, we got it.

 

[0:00:22]

Hiten Shah: For people trying to get shit done.

 

[0:00:24]

Steli Efti: Done. Yeah. We don't wanna give you feedback that's bullshit.

 

[0:00:26]

Hiten Shah: We want you to do your best. And it's a topic that I think is never really talked about because everyone has ideas and usually they jump right into doing something about it. But, really, an idea or inspiration for anything, even if it's: "I wanna eat Mexican food today," or whatever that is, it just comes onto you and then most of us are not thinking a lot about it, and we go act on it. I thought this would be just an interesting topic to explore because you can't run a business, you can't work in a business, do a startup, cause this is a startup chat so we're supposed to talk about startups, right, Steli?

 

[0:01:05]

Steli Efti: Right.

 

[0:01:05]

Hiten Shah: Without some level of inspiration. I think there's so many aspects to this so, just a topic that I felt like would be great to explore with you.

 

[0:01:13]

Steli Efti: Yeah, I love that. Alright,