There’s a reason why I like to define things clearly with numbers — it’s bringing some clarity, and it allows to reason within a certain framework

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My name is Lam Tran and I’m the co-founder and CEO of WisePass. I started in October 2014 and have been going through the ups and downs. My startup has been selected in the first batch of the accelerator Viisa and I wanted to share my personal opinion on how I managed to truly innovate with my startup and I think I could identify some patterns I wanted to share so some people can use it and apply it in South East Asia.

Let’s start maybe first with what I mean by truly innovate so we are sure of what we are talking about. For me, the true innovation is when you’re able to come up with a new concept and reach a billion dollar revenue. Easy…

There’s a reason why I like to define things clearly with numbers. It’s bringing some clarity and it allows to reason within a certain framework. It’s not about debating on ideas but rather setting some framework and play within that.

True innovation to me is not about having the idea. It’s about having the ability to start from the idea and bringing it to life with a real business and paying customers at a very large scale ( 1 billion revenue yearly in my definition). So now that we’re clear, let’s get started with 3 patterns that I’ve identified on my side:

The puzzle approach

Expectations

Ask someone if they’re willing to sit down with you and play on finishing that puzzle. It may take around 10 years though. By the way, you may not make much and just have to live on ramen (udon is ok ).

All right, the approach got a bit dramatic but it’s more to approach things with a really long-term mindset and set yourself with delayed gratification.

If the person is willing to go for it and is actually showing that consistency, you may have found your best partner for your startup. Working relentlessly and bringing that vision to life is going to take some years. I rarely see believe in the story of a guy that made millions of dollars within seconds.

The puzzle approach is psychological. It sets expectations and pushes you to work harder on a problem that no one else has worked on before. It means you have to figure it out by yourself without the help of some “so-called” experts. It forces you to question yourself and learn more every day to incorporate new information that can change your approach or your mindset.

Uniqueness

The puzzle approach helps you to create a unique set of knowledge after some time and compounds and creates a differentiation among other startups. The crazy insane hours of work on solving that problem start to pay off and you start to know a little bit more about the field you’re in.

When you just don’t build a business unique enough that requires much thinking and funding, you’re usually finding yourself with a bunch of competitors around you within no time in Vietnam. Definitely didn’t want to build something like that.

When you don’t innovate, you basically take a shortcut by taking a proven model and replicate it. Usually, you won’t be able to get to 1 billion dollar revenue ( unless you’re in China) and will end up having other people doing the same like you.

Also read: Singapore innovation ecosystem is in need of a new model

Obsession for learning

I took the word obsession rather than passion because I think that the word has been misused like hell. The word obsession is quite interesting to me as it’s for me the process of constantly thinking about something with an extremely high stamina level.

No matter the failures or successes, what’s going to matter is the ability to learn as fast as possible within your ability. Innovation spurs from the ability to absorb an immense amount of information, process it and act upon it.

If we actually don’t acquire new information in our brain to understand what’s going in our environment then we start to be irrelevant. Hence, using the world as your playground and meeting new people all the time is a way to discover new languages, mindset, and behavior. That’s interesting in general but it has to be done with an aim to improve your thinking and ability to solve the problem you’re trying to solve.

Conclusion

To conclude, I’m not a smart kid that went to Stanford or Harvard, my family is poor and I am launching a startup from an emerging country. I’m an underdog. Yet, I’ve seen in Vietnam so many people smarter, richer that eventually failed and think that there gotta be something that separates the ones that are successful and the ones that are not.

There might be more than 3 patterns but I thought I could share that first. Who wants some ramen?

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