To find your big idea? Look for it. And look for it. And be ready to act. Spanx founder Sara Blakely was actively seeking a business idea when she thought of Spanx. Then she moved fast, found help in the right places, and went all-in. The result: A billion-dollar company & women’s wardrobes transformed.

To move from one success to another — learn to un-learn. Take everything that helped you win the first time, then discard it and learn a new way. That’s how Barry Diller, titan of “old” media (ABC, Paramount, Fox), mastered the new dot-com world. His company IAC owns everything from Expedia to Vimeo to Match.com.

You don’t need a scaleable idea from day one. You might not know what your product will look like, or how you’ll get to market, or how you’ll make money. It’s OK. The most scalable ideas often come at you sideways. We talk to Diane Greene, who brought us into the age of cloud computing as the founding CEO of VMWare and now the head of Google’s cloud division. Learn how she leaned sideways into a market of boundless potential.

Your goal isn’t to beat the competition — it’s to escape the competition altogether. No one knows this better than Paypal founder Peter Thiel. “Competition is for losers,” he’s been known to say. Thiel is a former colleague, frequent co-investor and long-time intellectual sparring partner with Host Reid Hoffman. Enjoy the sparks.

The best business ideas often seem laughable at first glance. So if you’re hearing a chorus of “No’s” — it may actually be a good sign. So don’t be discouraged by rejection. Instead, learn the different kinds of “no.” That’s what Tristan Walker did. After stints at successful startups, he launched Walker & Company, makers of the Bevel razor, and learned the secret of how to talk with investors who may or may not share your vision.