It does take special people to make ideas happen. The hard part of innovating comes when you execute. For a long time, you don’t have rewards or feedback that tell you that your idea works.
The effort and cost has a little bit of return. It’s that learning phase. You can have setbacks and false starts because the uncertainty is real and high. That innovation journey can be bypassed if you had perfect knowledge or previous experience. But without those assets, you have to slog through the tough parts.
What you are looking for is the bend in the curve. Most people think linearly (or even flat). They are mechanistic. Put in a certain controlled effort and an output happens. But innovation happens in a linear fashion.
Innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders have a different task than mere daily execution. They are looking for the bend. It’s that place where the effort becomes easier and the cost is lower. Momentum builds and the returns are higher.
If you lack the mindset to persevere to this point, then you might never know what things look like when they take off. You did not experience that bend in the curve. In a self-reinforced way, life appears linear and almost flat.
Maybe that temporary hardship is why so few people look to make ideas happen. Or they may not have enough clarity in their mind’s eye to realize there is a bend they have to push towards. So, they settle because it’s easier.
So if you want to gain the rewards of innovation, remember that you have to stay in learning mode and persevere. Watch for the feedback and keep moving along that linear path. It’s about pivoting quickly and overcoming failures until you see resonance with the marketplace.
Know what I’m talking about?
