Innovation in a Dark Room

One of my favorite classes in art school was traditional 35 mm photography. I loved the dark room. It was a place of extraordinary magic where so many tiny decisions effected the outcome of each photo. I would spend hours (I'm talking literally half a night) processing photo after photo.

Every time I put the new sheet in the processing bath, I would sit intently watching as the image began to appear. Light emerging from dark. An image of a snapshot in time that I had taken. 1 second of a click and then hours and hours of manipulating and adjusting settings and timings, all in the dark, to see something powerful (or not) appear.

Sometimes it was just a picture. But sometimes. Sometimes it was a powerful expression of a moment in time that evolved into something extraordinary.

I was thinking about that feeling yesterday and how similar it is to entrepreneurship.

There is a moment in time where you see the picture in clear view. And you go for it. But then there are so many little factors to consider and navigate, all seemingly in the dark of the unknown. And sometimes it's a flop. But other times, it actually works.

And if you know how to adjust the settings and manipulate the surroundings, you can take what would otherwise be average and turn it into a masterpiece.

When we first build a business, if it doesn't flop (which I have had few do that (one day I'll tell you about my event planning business that lasted a month)) then it's usually pretty average. Which is perfectly sufficient.

But the creative entrepreneur mind craves both novelty and quality, which keeps us wanting more (That and our numbers are usually asking for it too). So we try to make another thing. And it flops. Or it works, but it but it spreads our energy too thin. Or doesn't fit in at all with the rest of our work.

Think about it this way:

You have a photography exhibition. You go out and shoot a roll of film to get a body of work. You develop the photos you thought were best, somewhat knowing how to use the equipment, and get some end results that are great, but some that are meh. So you think "I need something else" and go out to shoot some more. But the factors are different. The lighting is different. Even if you go to the same location, the elements are different. But you try it anyway. You print the photos and fill in the gaps. When you put it all together, the final results look disjointed and the exhibition doesn't have the impact of a cohesive whole.

That's what it's like when you have a business that's working but lacking, so you add in another service or asset without really doing you due diligence and thinking about the body of work you already have.

Is this making sense?

When you want your business to grow, creating something new is not the first step. It's not even the second step.

The first thing you need to do is really evaluate what you already have based on what you actually want your end results to be. And not just "I want to make more money" cause yeah that's really important, but how you want to do it is equally important.

There are plenty of ways to make more money but if you are looking at it through the wrong lens, it's not going to work.

You have to look at what you have and curate it so you have a clear picture of what is missing. There is another step after that before creating something new, which I will get into next week.

This is the work we do in the Innovation Lab. It's the creative residency where we figure out what's missing and what's next in your business growth. It's a potent and enriching space where you adapt and evolve to future proof your business.