WEBVTT

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Now, I don't want to complain,

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but it's really scary
being an entrepreneur.

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As a business owner,

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you're constantly worried that people
are going to make fun of your products,

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even if one of those products

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is a book called Knitting with Dog Hair -

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it's a real book.

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I don't know if you guys
can see the call-out, but it says,

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"Stop vacuuming and start knitting."

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As a business owner,

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you're constantly worried
that people are going to realize

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when you didn't think of everything,

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like the fact that the acronym
to your business name spells ASS -

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it's a real hair salon.

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And many like me are worried

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that people are going to find out
that you've made a mistake.

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I'm here to face
one of my greatest challenges

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and admit that I lost 250,000 dollars

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because I didn't understand
a fundamental principle

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about how business products were made.

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And I'm not here
just to get that off my chest;

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I'm here because I think
that understanding my mistake

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can help save your job -

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save it from robots,

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save it from downsizing,
globalization, all kinds of things.

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Now, I'm going to explain,
but first we have to go back,

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way back, to my first big business idea.

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I was at Carhop at Sonic, 14 years old,

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looked like I was a solid 10 years old

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and very excited to embark
on my new career in the service industry.

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So my first big idea
was to wear rollerblades to work.

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I know, I was 14, okay?
That was my first idea, okay?

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And nobody was wearing
rollerblades to work,

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unlike what you've seen
in the advertisements

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or the old-timey commercials.

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And this was going to be a win-win.

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I was going to make more money in tips
because of the novelty,

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and my business's would benefit
for people would come from all over town -

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none of the other fast-food chains
had anyone on rollerblades.

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So it's a good situation.

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The only problem was
that the owner of my Sonic said

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that under no uncertain terms was anyone
allowed to wear rollerblades to work.

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Small problem.

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So after a number
of these fruitless negotiations,

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one day I just showed up to work

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in a pair of rollerblades,
with nothing to change into.

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Yeah, I rollerbladed
the three miles from my house

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to work, uphill,

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with no other change of shoes.

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The only thing I did bring with me

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was a legal release of liability
that I had drafted,

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channeling my inner lawyer at 14,

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which I had presented
to the only manager on duty.

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Now,

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picture a 17-year-old
Napoleon Dynamite-looking character

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with real greasy hair

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who just stared at this document
for like a minute and finally said,

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"Whatever. Just do whatever you want."

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I was pretty proud of myself.

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Big success, right?

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Just up until the moment
that I actually had to start working.

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So the way it works at Sonic is
you pick up this tray of food,

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and then you back up

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through these two really,
really heavyset doors;

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they're made to close real fast
so that flies can't get in.

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So the problem was
because I had rollerblades on,

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I didn't have any traction
to actually open the doors.

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I tried to go sideways,
but I just couldn't get them open.

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A couple of times
my co-workers helped out,

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but then they got quickly annoyed
because they had their own stuff to do.

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So let's recap my big idea:

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my manager is really upset with me

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for putting him
in this difficult position;

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my coworkers are upset with me
for giving them extra work to do

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and holding up the line;

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and I, I'm exhausted.

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After wearing rollerblades
for five straight hours,

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I had to rollerblade home

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three miles, uphill,

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in the snow.

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(Laughter)

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Okay, now this is
the audience-participation portion

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of my talk.

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What do you think it feels like to have
the world's dumbest business idea?

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What do you think
it feels like in your body?

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What do you guys think?

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Audience: Sad.

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Sad.

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You're nauseous.

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You're embarrassed,

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like you don't even want
to go work the next day.

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Yeah, that's what you think it feels like,

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but it actually feels
just like the world's best business idea

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right up until the moment
that reality smacks you in the face

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and tells you otherwise.

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So this big point, this big difference
of not understanding

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that your ideas could feel really amazing
but actually be quite awful,

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I didn't understand that
until I made a much, much bigger mistake.

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So let's fast forward
to about five years ago.

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I'm this eager 29-year-old entrepreneur
with a number of successes under my belt,

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enough to have 250,000 dollars to invest.

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Pretty good.

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Now, did I put it away for a rainy day?

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No, entrepreneurs don't do that.

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Did I buy a fleet of Teslas
for my company?

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Entrepreneurs do that, but I didn't.

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Did I hire a marching band
to follow me around

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everywhere I went for a year?

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No, but that would have been
an amazing way

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to start today's presentation.

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No, it's actually a really funny story.

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I took all that money,

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and I invested it
in a young startup called Facebook.

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And over the last five years,
I’ve actually grown my money

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like a thousand times.

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Yeah, that actually did not happen either.

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(Laughter)

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I wish.

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No, what I did was I used the money

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to build software for lawyers
and their clients, legal software.

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And I would have been way better off
not just investing in Facebook stock

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but hiring the marching band
because I lost all that money;

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it was another one of those ideas
that felt really good at the time

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but turned out to be
a terrible business idea,

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and I didn't realize it
until all the money had been spent.

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Now, legal software is kind of difficult
to explain in a 10-minute talk

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so I wanted to come up
with an equally bad analogous product

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so we just had something
that we mutually understood

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was kind of like the product I created.

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So let's just assume for the sake
of this talk that what I invented

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was the poo trap of legal software, okay?

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(Laughter)

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So yeah, I, Diana Kander,
created the SNM-looking,

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"never have to pick up after your dog

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but none of your friends or neighbors
will make eye contact with you

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while your dog is wearing it"

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poo trap of legal software.

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Now do I have to take it off the screen
so you guys will listen? Okay.

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So ...

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the problem that I had made
was I misunderstood invention

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for innovation.

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You see, here's the key difference.

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Invention is when you come up
with a brand-new idea

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but nobody cares.

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It doesn't actually
provide value for anybody.

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It could actually cause havoc for people.

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And innovation is where you
come up with a new idea,

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and it actually creates value
for your intended audience.

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That's the key difference:

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whether or not your big idea
is actually valuable for your customers.

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And the thing is, you can't decide;

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only your customers can tell you.

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And while the poo trap
of legal software was a novel idea

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and had never existed before,

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it provided about as much value
as - well - the actual poo trap.

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It was a Frankenstein-level invention

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that the world didn't want.

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My customers didn't think

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that it was worth
their time or money to use.

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And this difference
between invention and innovation

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and whether or not
what it is that you're doing

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is actually creating value,

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it doesn't just haunt entrepreneurs;

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it affects all of us
in our jobs every single day.

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Let me explain.

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At work, we confuse doing stuff,

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doing our best at the tasks
we've been assigned -

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that's invention -

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with actually creating value
for the company where we work -

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that's innovation.

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So about two months ago,
I conducted a study

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where I asked over 1,000
business owners and managers

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how many of their employees
were irreplaceable.

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An irreplaceable employee
is somebody who's so valuable

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that no matter what happens
to the business, to the economy,

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they're the absolute last person
you would ever want to let go.

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They're like the Chewbacca
to your Han Solo,

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the Mr. Smithers to your Mr. Burns.

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Pretty important.

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And these managers,

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they talked about irreplaceable employees

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as people who created value
outside their job description.

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They didn't actually talk about people
who were incredible at their actual jobs;

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they talked about what they did
above and beyond:

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how they constantly found
new opportunities for the business,

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how they created efficiency

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and solve problems
that other people didn't notice.

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They talked about these employees

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as having this entrepreneurial mindset,

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like they saw their work as a product
and their company as their customer,

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and they were constantly checking

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to see whether what they
were creating was of value

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or whether they needed to adjust it.

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So ...

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think about that for a second.

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We all know that company
you currently work for

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needs to change to stay relevant.

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They do.

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Well, the same is true for your job.

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In order to make it relevant
on an ongoing basis,

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in order to become irreplaceable,

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we have to innovate our work
and what it is that we do.

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My research shows

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that if you want to make this transition

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from being a liability
on the payroll books

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to actually being an asset,

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then you need to transition your thinking

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from just showing up to work every day

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and going down your to-do list,
of what it is that you have to do,

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to actually thinking strategically

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about what you should be doing, right?

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You need to go from playing defense
with your to-do list

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to playing offense
on how to create value.

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So it's great to talk about it,
but how do you actually do it?

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Well, I have a few suggestions.

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I think you should spend
at least 15 minutes each week

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thinking about one of three things:

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innovating yourself, innovating your job,
and innovating your company, okay?

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Let me give you some examples.

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So if you're thinking
about innovating yourself

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as a way to create more value
for the company,

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why don't you make a list of 10 reasons
you should be fired today?

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I know, we don't spend much time
thinking about this topic,

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but think about it.

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That list is like a blueprint
for how you could create

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new value for your company.

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Next, think about how to create
new value by changing your job.

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Think about 10 ways you could change
what you do at work every day

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to save yourself five hours per week.

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We've all got efficiencies,

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but we don't spend enough time
thinking about them.

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And finally,

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think about how to create new value
by innovating your company.

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Why don't you make a list

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of 10 different things
your department could do

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to engage the employees

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and then maybe offer to lead
one of those initiatives.

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These are incredible ways
to create value for your organization

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and become one of those
irreplaceable employees,

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but the list I've given you
is just three suggestions.

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The reality is

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there are hundreds
of questions you can ask

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in each one of these categories.

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The trick is to turn it into a habit.

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The trick is to go from going down
your to-do list every day

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to thinking about
what you should be doing,

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like, Should you be going
to all those meetings?

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No.

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Is this project the absolute
best use of your time

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or is there something on your wish list

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that you think could create
even more value to the organization?

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I've come a long way

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to deciding to wear
rollerblades to work at Sonic

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and coming up with a poo trap
of legal software,

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and it's all because I stopped inventing
and started innovating.

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This focus on creating value
has allowed me

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to not only get over my big failure

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but write a New York Times bestseller,
start and sell a company,

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and become an innovation consultant
to Fortune 1000 companies.

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It's been an incredible journey
but it doesn't just have to be my story.

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I implore you

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to take off the metaphorical rollerblades

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and stop asking yourself,

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Am I doing a good job?

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Am I working hard at the things
they've asked me to do?

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And instead, ask, Am I creating value?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)