Comments on: Be An Innovator

By: replcia handbags

replcia handbags — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:02:06 +0000

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By: website design

website design — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:21:37 +0000

yes damon, it is certainly possible to become an innovator without being an idiot first. but the problem is that majority considers innovators as abnormal or idiots because they do some thing different.

By: RohitK

RohitK — Sat, 09 May 2009 08:22:21 +0000

When some one said that World is flat people started calling him idiot. But what happened at last everybody now believing about this.
@ Damon. Yo are absolutely right
To show ur innovative idea u have to proof ur self as Idiot..then people will try ur idea as a fun and then success will come..

so true leader some times prove them selves as idiot. before saying their orginal idea…

By: RohitK

RohitK — Sat, 09 May 2009 08:22:07 +0000

so true leader some times prove them selves as idiot. before saying their orginal idea…

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:08:03 +0000

Absolutely.

By: Damon

Damon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:31:55 +0000

Is it possible to become an innovator without first being an idiot?

By: markedone

markedone — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:56:46 +0000

Now we really need to choose innovative way of development, it's for sure.

By: Jud Valeski

Jud Valeski — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:34:53 +0000

funny you posted that. I saw that ad at the bottom of the times today and had the exact same reaction!

By: bfeld

bfeld — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:37:13 +0000

Dave – thanks for the comment. Great examples – and a good articulation of the struggle with being the innovator.

By: Dave Michels

Dave Michels — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:01:35 +0000

This is a great piece Brad. Thanks.

For many of us, we play all three roles at different times in our careers. At large companies, sometimes we get assigned the roles. For example, 10 years ago I got assigned the role of Y2K Czar – I thought the role was idiotic and wanted nothing to do with it, but there was no escape from it. I had to meet with all the departments and vendors and go over their Y2K readiness and to do it right meant asking detailed questions. I remember meeting with Public Service/Xcel and going over their readiness to ensure we would not lose power…. I was doing my job, but I sure felt like an idiot.

I can honestly say I have played all three roles. They all have their challenges – being innovative can be like pushing boulders uphill when no one gets it. I was in the travel industry in the mid 90s and I was pushing the Internet (along with a core group of really smart people). But we were constantly being pushed down. No computer in the company that had Internet access was allowed to be connected to our internal servers. What a joke. It was a like congressional hearing trying to convince the leadership team that the Internet offered more than porn. That company hasn't fared so well.

Lately, over the past few years, I thought I was playing the innovater, but in hindsight I was the idiot. That is the risk of being the innovator – you are pushing a new reality that may indeed be wrong – or in my case was too dependent on too many external variables.

John Chambers at Cisco is pushing his new way of realizing innovation. I am not a big Cisco fan, but it resonates that his model of these tribunals may be on to something. So much depends on execution. I was privileged to be in a very innovative group at GE for a few years, but that didn't last long after some key executive changes. Like Atlas Shrugged – sometimes the innovators all pack up and leave.

Thanks for the post.