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Overview

Innovation is the key to success. It comes from trying new things and seeing what happens. To bring an idea to life, we should recognize our fears of failure, which can push us into taking big risks and doing something new. Every project requires attention, preparation, and determination in order to succeed.

Have you ever had an idea that could change the world? Are you afraid to share it because you’re not sure how people will react?

Even the most successful innovators have had doubts about their ideas. As Seth Godin, a marketing guru and author, explains in his book “The Icarus Deception”, one of the biggest fears is that you’ll be too late to market with your idea.

Maybe you’ll be ahead of your time, or maybe the original idea will fail but will lead to the next idea that then proves to be a real winner. But you won’t know until you put your idea out there and see how people react.

If you have an innovative vision, this is a great time to turn it into reality. Thanks to the economy and new business models, you can take your ideas to market with little overhead.

In this article, you will discover how persistence is like a poker player; problem-solving is similar to a Canadian rock band; and don’t offer half-baked ideas in restaurants.

Big Idea #1: In today’s economy, it is necessary to adapt and change in order to succeed.

If you had no obstacles in your way, what would you do? If you could pursue any project, regardless of resources and cooperation from others, what would it be?

Today, instead of money and organizations, the most important success factor is instigation capital. That is the desire to take initiative and turn your dreams into reality.

In the past few years, money has become less important for business success. In 2012, 67 internet start-ups were funded in San Francisco and New York. This is a huge difference from Silicon Valley where only 20 companies are funded with that much money.

The importance of capital and networks has diminished in today’s times. What is more important is the drive to pursue your goals, as well as instigation. Anyone can learn about business from a class, but not everyone learns how to instigate or inspire people into action. If there isn’t someone with that skill pushing an idea forward, then it will never be implemented in the first place.

Without initiative, people are limited to watching other people do things. Wikipedia is a prime example of this. It was started in 2001 by regular people who wanted to build an online encyclopedia that anyone could contribute to.

Encyclopaedia Britannica was the dominant player in its industry, but it didn’t have any initiative to take advantage of the Internet. Investors were ready to fund a new idea that could be as successful as Wikipedia, so all we needed was someone with initiative to bring that idea into fruition.

Big Idea #2: In order to be successful, you have to challenge the status quo.

Many people wait for permission to achieve their dreams. However, those who are successful don’t wait around for that; they just go out and do it. This is a habit that you should start cultivating immediately. It comes from an experience the author had with his uncle’s toy box as a child, which was shaped like a cube or box. He would poke various switches on the box and see what happened, creating new combinations of lights and sounds in the process.

For example, take computer programming. If you want to be a great programmer, you won’t get there by following someone else’s code step by step. Innovative programmers poke the box and try new things as they go along through trial and error.