Pinterest is one of the newest and hottest social media sites out there currently. With more than 70 million users, its population is slightly larger than Thailand’s. It features about 5 million pins of a variety of things from food, crafts, travel and fashion. Pinterest is now a billion dollar company, but only started about three years ago.
One of the cofounders Ben Silbermann gave a speech on how Pinterest came into existence. Such a creative and innovative idea took a lot of work and time. He spent years trying to get funding and partners before Pinterest was ever launched. He also had first created an app called Tote that was not a big success. The two main things I took away from the Pinterest story were that brilliant ideas do not just happen and that failure usually comes before a grand success. It takes a lot of hard work and patience. In addition, you cannot give up because you never know if your very next idea will be it.
On top of all that, look at how much creativity Pinterest has sparked in others. As an avid Pinterest user, I can say that Pinterest brings out my imagination and resourcefulness in allowing me to explore new things that I would normally never get the chance to do. I think our culture is moving in the trend of getting out of our comfort zones or at least pretending to. I believe that in order for there to be more innovation in the world people are going to have to challenge themselves to do things never done before. Pinterest is a tool that is beginning to help people get there.
Go ahead. Try Pinterest. Explore and discover something new. Then do it. Comment below on what challenged you.
Here are some similar articles where I got some info.
http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-founding-story-2012-4?op=1
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/pinterest-stats/#.UuhXS7ROnIU