Advice to Entrepreneurs
In worldbuilding, you are creating an entire world from scratch. You need to come up with a backstory, a geography, a history, and a culture. You need to think about the different types of people who might live in this world, and the challenges they might face.
In entrepreneurship, you are also creating something new. You are starting a business from scratch, and you need to come up with a product or service that people want. You need to think about the market, the competition, and how you can make your business stand out.
Worldbuilding and entrepreneurship are two seemingly different concepts, but they actually have a lot in common. Both require creativity, problem-solving skills, and the ability to think outside the box.
Here are some suggestions for entrepreneurs to incorporate worldbuilding and storytelling in their ventures.
- Identify Your Vision: The first step is to understand the world you want to create. What problem are you solving? What change do you want to see in the world? How will your product or service contribute to that change? Your vision is the foundation of your worldbuilding and storytelling efforts. For example, with IndiaWorld, my vision was of Indians worldwide connected to each other, content, and products. With Email Shops, my vision is where the inbox becomes a mall, a shopping cart, and a payment instrument.
- Understand Your Audience: Who are the inhabitants of your new world? They could be your customers, investors, employees, or any other stakeholders. What are their needs, desires, and fears? Understanding your audience allows you to tailor your world and your story to resonate with them. Each target audience may need a version of the story tailored to their problems and needs.
- Build Your World: Start building the features of your world. How does it work? How does it solve the problem you identified? What makes it unique? Create demos to show, rather than tell. If possible, make people experience the new world you are creating themselves. With AMP, I have people play a quiz or do a search on their mobile right inside their email inbox – that’s when the blinkers disappear.
- Craft Your Story: Use the details of your world to craft a compelling narrative. Connect your world’s features to the problem it solves and the change it brings. Make your audience the protagonist of your story, showing them how your world can transform their lives. Going back to the Email Shops example, I ask people how removing the friction of the clickthrough will change their browsing and purchase behaviour.
- Share Your Story: Use every channel available to you – your website, social media, public speaking opportunities, press releases, and more. Engage with your audience, listen to their feedback, and continue to refine your story. It is what I do with the blog – I write to help me think better and create material I can share internally to make others see the world we are trying to build through my lens.
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Worldbuilding and storytelling are thus indispensable tools in an entrepreneur’s arsenal. They allow entrepreneurs to not just envision and build new realities, but also bring others along on their journey. In the rapidly changing landscape of business and innovation, these skills can make the difference between success and failure. They help entrepreneurs – and the inhabitants (customers) – climb “mountains beyond mountains.”
