As one year comes to a close and another approaches, it’s a natural time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the last 12 months and what we plan to achieve in our next chapter. At this time, many of us seek that single mission, that one overarching endeavor, that Next Big Thing that will frame our new year. But whether it’s about advancing a career, finding Miss or Mister Right, writing a book, traveling to an exotic locale, or making a commitment to a charity or community project, that Next Big Thing often doesn’t clearly emerge for us.
Through my experience and my study of leaders, pioneers and inventors, I’ve identified four steps that I think can help isolate that Next Big Thing many people look for at the turn of each year. Here I share them and hope they can serve as a help in setting your own goals for 2015.at Inventions
Before getting into the four steps, I would like to set the stage with the stories of two prolific inventors.
“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.” These famous words by Thomas Edison offer some insight on how to find the Next Big Thing. Edison is most well-known for his invention of the light bulb, but he actually didn’t invent the light bulb. Like all great inventions, the light bulb was the culmination of a series of small improvements to the ideas of previous inventors.
What then made Edison’s contribution to electric lighting so extraordinary? It was his grand vision: he didn’t just focus on improving the bulb, he developed a whole set of inventions that made the use of light bulbs practical.
When Edison got involved with lighting, electric lights were unreliable, expensive and short-lasting. At the same time, though, the world was in the throes of rapid change thanks to the Industrial Revolution. New industries needed longer working hours to satisfy rising consumer demand. Edison focused on the world’s needs while other inventors focused on continuing to make small advances. His vision went above and beyond to serve a greater business need. As a result, his success offers an important example of how a person can align his purpose with meeting a crucial societal need. Another, more recent example of an inventor finding his purpose in fulfilling a societal need is Mark Zuckerberg.
When I grew up in a traditional family in Tokyo, I saw a new urban lifestyle emerging and gaining popularity among the middle class. The new generation either avoided or didn’t seem to have time for direct personal relationships with neighbors and the community.
From this, I discovered that Japanese culture was changing rapidly, and I started to focus on this new individualism in the process of writing my thesis in graduate school. All developed countries already face the problem of being part of a society while having independence and personal space, and it was obvious to me that Japan would begin facing these kinds of issues in the near future. For this reason, I thought that we needed to recreate the community in a new way to connect with others. Several years later, I discovered Facebook and saw the beginning of this and a new era of social media.
Again, Zuckerberg was not the first one to invent social networking, but his vision met a great societal need of helping people connect and belong in a new social era. Zuckerberg’s vision became his purpose, and the rest is history.
4 Steps to Find Your Next Big Thing
Now that we’ve seen how Edison and Zuckerberg transformed their purpose into fulfilling a societal need, how can we duplicate that process and make it happen in our lives?
First of all, let me define the Next Big Thing. This has to be your Next Big Thing, not just any fad. You will need to be persistent and patient as your vision will take some time to form and get people’s attention. You must have a strong desire to change the way it is today.
Discovering the Next Big Thing, however, requires more than your strong desire. As we mentioned about the Industrial Revolution and the new urban lifestyle, there has to be genuine problems in society at large. So, your Next Big Thing will happen only when your vision meets society’s needs. And, internally, your vision has to transform into something bigger, into something as substantive as a purpose. With this framework in mind, I am proposing four steps to help you find your Next Big Thing in 2015:
1. Search inside yourself. Everything has to happen within you first. Take time to reflect in 2014 and see there is a strong urge in you to change the way it is today. Be mindful about your own criticism — any ideas are good in this exercise. Try to write down the first 20 ideas that occur to you.
2. Observe what’s out there. Take advantage of downtime over the holiday and list the 10 biggest events in 2014 that you think people paid the most attention to, and, most importantly, think of why these events grabbed people’s attention.
3. Visualize yourself in five years. This exercise should require your creativity most, so pick the right time to try this. Envision yourself in five years – the more detail, the better. For instance, what’s the first thing you’ll do when you wake up in the morning? Will you reach for a mobile phone? What apps will you be using? What will you be eating for breakfast?
4. Formulate your vision for a future society. Now, compare what you listed for steps one, two and three above. Number one should show who you are today. Number two should describe where you are today. And number three should show the way to the future. You see where we are going? It’s a map from the present to the future you. Are there any gaps that you can fill and that you have a passion for? Write down any ideas that come up to you.
Here you have a map to bring you a possible Next Big Thing and an opportunity to serve a greater purpose! I hope this four-step exercise will spark new ideas and set you up for a great start for the new year.
Please let me know if you find these steps are helpful and leave a comment below.
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