During these past weeks, all of the Innovation Academy students (including me) were faced with a challenge: to find something that we love to do, that the world needs, that we’re good at, and that we would get paid for, all at the same time. The combination of these 4 aspects would be our purpose, or as Denise Dziwak described it for us in her presentation, our SWEET SPOT.
When she first presented this concept and it’s venn-diagram, it seemed very logical and obvious and kind of easy to find. It was when we had to actually find it that things got hard and challenging. Where the hell was our “SWEET SPOT”??? What could that thing that we loved, that the world needs, that we’re good at, AND that we would get paid for be? And HOW would we find it?
These questions seemed like swirls in our heads that appeared as black clouds that covered our vision at first, but then, these same questions became the ones that helped us come up with a BUSINESS idea to work on in the IA.
This task was presented to us as a grade project called “Get Over Yourself”. The goal of this project goes much further than just starting a business and creating profit. The real objective of it is to look beyond ourselves and add value to our community.
This is why it was necessary to find our SWEET SPOT. Although most of us did it unconsciously, in order for us to find all the great business ideas we came up with, we had to - at some point - answer all of the basic questions to find that SWEET SPOT or passion.
If we apply this concept to our businesses, the questions we unavoidably HAD to ask ourselves to come up with all the amazing business ideas, go somewhere between these lines:
What do we love doing?
What does our community need?
What are we good at?
What would our community be willing to pay us for?
As soon as we answered these questions, the VALUE of our businesses immediately became clear. We just had to find the right way to phrase it and make it clear. Also, these questions were the ones that helped us identify the FEASIBILITY, the DESIRABILITY, and the VIABILITY of our businesses. Out of the 18 business ideas that the whole class came up with (1 per each student), we narrowed them down to 5. I believe that the remaining 13 businesses that did not make it to the end were the ones that were not successful at answering these basic four questions. They did not succeed either for a lack of PASSION, a lack of MISSION, a lack of PROFESSION, or a lack of VOCATION. These keywords are the combination of the four basic questions that lead to finding our SWEET SPOT. The 5 businesses that have succeeded (until now), are definitely the ones with the most PURPOSE.
My initial business idea was decorating notebooks and other supplies for Middle Schoolers as it was something I used to love doing, but besides that, it didn’t really answer the other three questions. It was not something Middle Schoolers needed, something I (and the other IA students) were good at, or something that we would actually get paid for.
Therefore, I decided to join Rafa in her CrepêZ business as I fell in love with it. The main reason for which I did this, was because I believed much more in her idea than in mine, and this was because of a simple reason. I'd love to do it, I believe that the community needs it, I think we could all be good at it, and I truly think it is something that the FDR community will be willing to pay us for.
During the next two weeks, we will be prototyping the 5 businesses that have succeeded until now. I'm excited to see how they all work out and which ones will be the ones with the most success. I'm certain that these ones will be the ones with the most PASSION, MISSION, PROFESSION, and VOCATION. All of our hard work and dedication for this project will be totally worth it once we're able to notice how it's adding value to our community. I'm looking forward to see this happen!
Of course that this concept and venn-diagram can also apply to us as INDIVIDUALS, but in this case we are focusing on it as a STARTUP.