Creators aren’t superhuman. In fact, many of them have rather ordinary beginnings or lack credentials.  By applying specific skills and reframing how they view the world, they are able to bring new ideas to life. This is particularly exciting because more and more, the world is moving away from solving defined problems to seizing new angles and breathing life into new ideas.

Amy Wilkinson is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is also an entrepreneur and keynote speaker, and advises both statups and large corporations on innovation and business strategy. In her book The Creator’s Code – The Six Essential Skills of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Wilkinson discusses the six skills highly successful creators have in common.

“No special expertise is required to master these six skills,” explains Wilkinson. “You don’t need credentials or degrees. The ability to turn ideas into enduring enterprises is available to anyone willing to learn and work.”

After interviewing more than 200 entrepreneurs with companies that generate more than $100 million in revenue or serve more than 100,000 people, one undeniable conclusion could be drawn: creators are not born that way. They learn, apply and pass on the six skills to their teams. While each skill is important in its own right, they are also highly collaborative and feed on each other to create momentum.

Let’s take a look at the six essential skills shared by extraordinary creators and entrepreneurs.

Find the Gap

Creators spot opportunities often missed by others. Being alert, attentive and keeping your eyes open are essential skills to harness. Creators often have unique ways of thinking and acting as they seize opportunities to excel. When looking at the experiences of creators, it becomes clear that they tend to see the world and then act from three dominant perspectives.

Sunbirds see solutions that work in one area and then repurpose them for the challenge at hand. Architects build new solutions and new business models from the ground up, taking a blank-sheet-of-paper approach. Integrators meld together solutions from a variety of sources to build something entirely new and original.

Whether acting as a Sunbird, and Architect or an Integrator, the creator’s most important tool is curiosity. If you meet a creative entrepreneur in person, you will likely find they are in the habit of asking a myriad of detailed questions even about the most seemingly mundane situations.

Drive for Daylight

Creators are like race-car drivers who keep their eyes fixed on the road ahead. They scan the horizon, watch the edges for new ideas and continually adjust to a fast-moving marketplace. In the same way race-car drivers focus on the horizon while letting their hands automatically follow their eyes, creators ignore immediate obstacles and keep working towards their long-term mission.

Always looking toward the future, creators are constantly trying to figure out how to create something so extraordinary it stuns their customers. They figure out how to do things better and focus on what still remains to be done to achieve their goal, rather than patting themselves on the back for how far they’ve already come. Constantly striving for greatness, creators actively look for innovative ideas on the periphery while avoiding nostalgia because it simply isn’t productive or helpful.

Creators get everyone focused by dictating what not to do next. Taking this approach rules out distractions, and overcomes hubris and nostalgia. By ignoring diversions and eliminating distractions, everyone can focus on the task ahead.

Use the OODA Loop

The “OODA loop,” which stands for observe, orient, decide and act, was developed by military aviators for use in battle. Creators follow a similar pattern of constantly updating their assumptions and moving nimbly from one decision to the next. By acting quickly, they beat others to the punch.

Creators gather information about the marketplace (Observe), analyze and figure out what’s relevant (Orient), cut through ambiguities and make quick decisions (Decide) and move swiftly to gain control of advantages before competitors respond (Act). Repeating this cycle propels creators towards success.

To observe, orient, decide and then act quickly, creators tend to work and collaborate with people they already know and trust. They can then encourage everyone to speak up, even if what they are suggesting goes against what the senior management team are suggesting. OODA works best when there is a diversity of opinions.

Fail Wisely

Creators have the mindset that it’s better to have an early small failure than a catastrophic failure later on. They place small bets to test ideas in order to build resilience and learn how to turn setbacks into the success stories of the future. Failing forward towards success involves the four general practices of placing small bets, setting a failure ratio, believing and persisting, and turning setbacks into strengths.

Wilkinson writes, “Creators have the ability to make a right turn, left turn or U-turn, and start again when circumstances dictate. While failure is not fun or easy, the vast majority of failures are surmountable. The biggest failure of all would be refusing to try.”

Creators decide ahead of time how much failure is acceptable, so they can aim to take risks rather than aim for perfection. Instead of giving up when early problems arise, creators keep going because they feel it in their bones that everything will work out in the long run. They have a knack for bouncing back again and again. In fact, most creators attribute their long-term successes to the fact they have persevered through big challenges.

Network Minds

Creators have a knack for harnessing the brainpower of diverse individuals. They become skilled at networking minds and bringing different perspectives together in order to solve a problem. Creators know the best ideas result from collaboration with unlikely allies, and understand the importance of developing forums where everyone works together to create solutions. They generate success by designing shared workspaces, by fostering fresh teams, by holding competitions and by building work-related games.

In order to get people from multiple disciplines working together, creators become good at building physical and virtual workspaces which encourage collaboration. When people from different backgrounds or specializations rub elbows and discuss each other’s ideas, cross-pollination occurs. An idea from one field becomes applied in an entirely different context. The physical workplace, therefore, must be designed to encourage constant collaboration.

Creators are also good at assembling a temporary team to solve a problem or address an urgent need. Using prize competitions and applying game strategies are two ways to get a flash team engaged. Playing games builds relationships with fellow players, which increases trust. Additionally, the thrill of victory and of winning something nice is incredibly powerful. Gamers think they are going after a prize when they are really working to solve a larger problem. Games can serve a productive role in this way.

Gift Small Goods

Creators don’t generally have a one-dimensional view of success. They tend to view success as being just as much about caring for customers, their colleagues and their peers as it is about building a dazzling product. As a result, creators frequently give small gifts as a way to build relationships and help others.

Creators are generous. They increase their productivity by helping others, by sharing information, by pitching it to complete a task and by creating interesting openings for their colleagues. This starts a circle which pays great dividends. This style of working is very much aligned with a networked world. While helping others has always been the right thing to do, today is can actually be a worthwhile source of competitive advantage.

In general, creators aren’t just nice people. They take practical action to help those around them in meaningful ways. They pay it forward and inevitably start a chain reaction where value flows back to them in abundance. They view generosity as a skill and become experts at wielding it.

Successful creators are not born with an innate ability to conceive and build $100 million enterprises. Instead, they tap the six essential skills to start and then grow from there. Each skill is important and useful on its own but when you combine them, tremendous outcomes can result.

As author Amy Wilkinson writes, “The six skills aren’t the monopoly of a special category of person. They aren’t rare gifts or slim-chance talents. They are accessible to all of us. Each skill can be developed and cultivated. Once you know the code, you can apply it to your next endeavor.”