Jeremy Gutsche, mastermind behind TrendHunter.com, offered attendees at The Conference 2014 in New York City six pathways to coming up with usable ideas better and faster.

Those pathways are: convergence, reduction, redirect, circular, acceleration and divergence.

A bit more on how to get on those pathways later, but first, a few traps to watch out for.

Most successful people got that way by repeating what they’ve already done to get them there. That’s great when you’re starting out, but can quickly become traps if those habits keep you from taking advantage of new opportunities.

As examples, Gutsche offered such companies as Smith Corona, which made it a goal to produce “the world’s best typewriter,” or Encyclopedia Britannica, which refused to publish its product online. Both companies, and others, refused to see the future barreling down on them and as a result were replaced (or disrupted if you will) by other products and other technologies.

“Once you find your area of opportunity, you repeat all of the decisions that served you in the past,” Gutsche said.

He called this mindset the three traps of the farmer:

1) Complacency,

2) repetition

3) and being protective of assets.

Instead, Gutsche said to consider the instinct of the hunter, which offers three calls to action:

1) Insatiability,

2) curiosity

3) and a willingness to destroy what he’s already created.

“Human nature is to assume the status quote will last forever,” said Gutsche. “To get out of this, fuel your team’s insatiability. Get everyone on your team trying something new.”

“Once we are successful as a brand, team or senior professional, we tend to repeat and optimize what’s worked in the past. We use that to perfect what we doing but it can also lead to irrelevance. When you are insatiable, you can make almost anything work.”

Gutsche also told the audience to kill its darlings. “Be willing to destroy what worked in the past,” he said.

As an example, he cited Chef Eric Ripert, who runs the Michelin-starred Le Bernadin in New York City. According to Gutsche, if a diner requests a specific dish, Ripert immediately makes it unavailable.

“He doesn’t want to be known for a signature dish. He teaches us to break free from our past success,” said Gutsche.

Keeping those six pathways Looking back at those previously mentioned six patterns, Gutsche didn’t have time to go into all of them, but here are some examples of what he was talking about.

Acceleration: taking a trend and pushing it further.

Will Dean took the challenge of completing a marathon and pushed it even further, creating the Tough Mudder, a race that runs competitors through mud, sends them crawling under electrified screens, climbing over walls and other obstacles.

“All people care about is the sense of completion. With social media comes the humble brag, and if people complete something, they can share it with all their friends,” said Gutsche.

Dean built Tough Mudder into a $70 million company in two years.

Convergence: looking at as many trends as possible to create something new.

In 2005, former convict Dave Dahl founded Dave’s Killer Bread. He had been imprisoned for ten years, and while he was in jail he decided he wanted to join his family’s bakery and start a new life when he got out.

But he didn’t just decide to bake bread. He educated himself on trends surrounding food and marketing and incorporated those into his plan. He made his bread from local, organic ingredients and he told his unique story on the label. Instead of repelling customers, this attracted to them. Today, Dave’s Killer Bread is a $50 million business.

Reduction: Be irresistible to a specific group of people.

Redirection: Take your weakness and turn them into strengths.

Circular: Take advantage of trends that repeat, from teenage rebellion to economic cycles.

Divergence: Go in a different direction. Pursue the path less traveled.

This path includes anti-heroes, such as Walter White or Dexter, but it also includes unlikely brand successes such as Red Bull.

Red Bull was originally founded by Dietrich Mateschitz, who, while working in Thailand, discovered an energy beverage called Krating Daeng. He and some partners decided to market it around the world, but upon focus-grouping it, discovered that testers found it tasted terrible.

But instead of giving up, Mateschitz and his partners just pivoted. They packaged it in a small, sleek can and charged three times as much for it as a standard soft drink. They also surrounded their new brand with sexy, adventurous, energetic content.

“The thinking was ‘if everyone else has a legal and compliance team and can’t sponsor cool stuff, then we will,‘” said Gutsche.

“You are capable of more than you think,” Gutsche told the audience. “Your great idea is right in front of you, you just have to see through the patterns to be able to get to it. Be insatiable, be curious and be willing to destroy and you will be better and faster.”

Find Jeremy on Twitter @JeremyGutsche or at his Web site, Trendhunter.com. And look for his forthcoming book, Better & Faster.

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