Just about everyone knows that being an innovator involves risk, but just what is that risk? You become an innovator to avoid the risk of becoming obsolete by “doing what you’ve always done.” But this is about the risk of tripping up in the efforts to stay ahead of obsolete. When you commit to being an innovator you open yourself up to the likelihood of failure and resistance from those who want to protect the status quo. But beyond that the chance to create something extraordinary comes with a large dose of uncertainty. Creating the extraordinary is really about anticipation, intuition and making a guess about the wants and needs of the future. It involves playing around with a crystal ball and speculating on future outcomes. However, when you get it right it can be almost magical. The magical part is what makes the risk worth taking. But every innovative venture starts out with the potential for loss of credibility, loss of money and time and pride. All this potential for loss makes any normal human want to find ways to eliminate or at least minimize the risk but eliminating risk is not as simple as just asking people what they want or need. Henry Ford once said if he had asked people what they wanted, the auto industry would never gotten off the ground because people would have just asked for a faster horse. And then there is post it notes that were rejected by customers to many times to count before they finally caught on. So innovators have to know what customers don’t even know about themselves. So, you have to be thick skinned about your vision and stick to it with conviction. You can never gather enough information to make an innovative venture certain so do your homework get input as soon as possible and then be bold and make the leap of faith. And remember, certainty really isn't as exciting as uncertainty!
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