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The Scope of Innovation: a pivotal movement for survival and prosperity

Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship, Trends & Ideas on March 2, 2010

As any regular reader will know, two of my most popular topics or themes are entrepreneurship and congruent with that, innovation. Well, I want to share a theory of mine regarding innovation. I don’t know if “theory” is the right word but it works for me. It is a concept that I think a fair amount about. It is the solution to many of our society’s and planet’s problems. And, guess what… it includes innovation!!

Common discussions in today’s society include efficiency, uses of limited resources, care of the environment, and related topics. This are concerning and critical issues but one piece of the discussion that is often missing is the opportunities that lie ahead. This includes innovation, technology, and more. Many of the discussions are in a closed box as though we will never innovate or improve again and are left to find improved efficiency with what we have. The result is always lackluster performance with incremental influence and essentially no solution to today’s issues. Take examples such as cap & trade. Scientific evidence suggests little, if any, measurable improvement by such enacted measures. So why do we, as a society, interest ourselves in the wasted resources (in this case, increased economic costs), for little result? Again, the discussion and solution are discovered within the closed box and the supporting groups and individuals feel doing something is better than nothing, even without favorable result. So what happens when we up top the box? Welcome to the key of societal development.

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Innovation, Success

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Define Success? Is that YOUR definition or someone else’s?

Posted by Billy in Business Theory & Strategy on August 21, 2009

I recently watched the video below, Alain de Botton describing and defining success in our age, including the fabulous opportunity of success like no other time in history, and the shortcomings and downfalls that such thinking brings. This is a good TED talk that helps ground the over-ambitious entrepreneur. It allows you to do a little introspection regarding your ambitions and desires. I liked as well the open identification of the weaknesses of a such a “success-driven” society, including meritocracy. One must be careful, however, as the spectrum goes from “everything is my fault, good and bad” to “nothing is my fault”. Neither end is correct. We do control much of our own future but not all of it (you never know when tragedy strikes, etc.). And, sorry, but the odds are you are not the next Bill Gates. Which brings me to the next interesting point.

I found it interesting, yet logical, that essentially where success is treated as “easily accessible to all”, depression and suicide tend to be accessed much more than where it is not. We all decide we must be failures since it is so readily available and yet, we’re not successful yet. Although I feel it is more available than it has ever been, success has become a game of envy, jealousy, and comparison instead of individual opportunity to be YOU.

He also points out the concept that realistically, you can’t be good at everything. He goes so far as to say that work-life balance is bunk. I may not agree 100% but it is true. I mean, the most successful mega-companies have typically been run by work-aholics with little, if any, “personal” life. This doesn’t mean their have not been extremely successful people with some resemblance of balance, only that the most achieved individuals in one area often are lacking in other areas, no matter what you see (no one is touting their shortcomings…).

A recent post at “bootstrap business” defines the issue entrepreneurs continually have with this balance and validates, to some extent, the point Alain states in the video.

Check out the vid and do a little thinking about success and you want. As he states, we often accept other people’s definitions of success which is a terrible thing as many arrive at their destination realizing it isn’t what they wanted all along.