The Creator’s Code hands readers the keys to turn their ideas into enterprises that endure. Amy Wilkinson, an advisor on innovation and strategy to start-ups and large corporations alike, spent years of research unlocking the six essential skills that turn intriguing concepts into successful companies.
Wilkinson conducted rigorous interviews with 200 of today’s leading entrepreneurs including the founders of LinkedIn, Chipotle, eBay, Under Armour, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Spanx, Airbnb, PayPal, JetBlue, Gilt Groupe, Theranos, and Dropbox. She also drilled down through the latest academic research and analysed data from across diverse fields, combining those insights with her first-hand discoveries to crack the code on what it takes to go from start-up to scale in our rapidly changing economy.
Evaluating companies as diverse as Yelp, Chobani, and Zipcar, Wilkinson found that their creators all share—and have honed—fundamental skills that can be learned, practiced, and passed on. Entrepreneurial success is born of daring, discipline, and the six skills she identifies:
- Find the gap: Spot opportunities that others don’t see
- Drive for daylight: Manage speed by focusing on the horizon
- Fly the OODA loop: Master fast-cycle iteration to observe, orient, decide, and act
- Fail wisely: Set a failure ratio and hone resilience
- Network minds: Harness cognitive diversity to build on each other’s ideas
- Gift small goods: Unleash generosity to increase productivity
Like Good to Great but focused on individuals rather than companies, The Creator’s Code shows how everyone can identify great opportunities and build them into successful ventures like those Wilkinson spotlights—businesses that are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars or more and are changing the way we live our lives. Wilkinson shows that everyone who succeeds in creating a product or service that’s new to the marketplace shares these six key skills, even if they don’t realise it. Wilkinson’s gift is showing how these skills are accessible to everyone. They can be practiced, enhanced, and improved by committed individuals — it’s not rare genius but deliberate efforts and hard work that pay off for people who build great businesses.
