Everybody loves to be called innovative - it's a badge of honor that every designer and developer appreciate to be attributed with. 'Innovation' returns 130,000,000 Google search result.

 

This guy for example innovated when he created a simple system called the world wide web back in 1989.

 

His name is Tim Berners-lee or affectionately known as TBL.

 

He is my personal hero as his invention literally change the world - can you imagine the Internet without the World Wide Web? - he also has a big heart in giving his invention away as a gift to humanity.  What a guy!

 

This guy also innovated when he introduced this small concept called Micro Finance where he founded Grameen Bank that operates by giving small loans to poor people in Bangladesh to enable people to start micro businesses and sustain for themselves and their families.

Oh, he also won the Noble Peace Prize in 2006. His name is Muhammad Yunus. He's an economist and his concept changed the world and help so many poor to be independent. What a guy!

 

As you can see, we recognize these people as innovators. They do not put a Google ads saying they are innovators. We recognize them through their works.

#1 Innovator is not a title, it is a recognition.

That is why it doesn't make sense to give someone in an organization as being responsible for innovation.

When both of them started in their journey through their innovation, they weren't worried about being innovative. They were trying to solve some specific problems, TBL is about sharing information across network and MR. Yunus is about trying to figure out on how to make poor people live better.

 

#2 Try to solve problems or create new reality

You cannot be innovative by doing nothing. Go out there and solve some problems.

 

#3 Big or small innovation - keep doing it

We might not be a TBL or Muhammad Yunus, but we all can contribute to the progress of humanity in our smaller innovation.

 

#4 You cannot keep doing the same thing - go experiment

Try to solve problems differently - think of many ideas and go do it.

 

#5 Do not accept the status quo (do not be reasonable)

The future is not about reason and logic - it's about hope and imagination. The current reality is not the future. We will have to invent it.

 

 

#6 Do not be lazy (Roll up your sleeves and get going !)

I think this is clear enough. Innovation is hard work. You must be prepared to put in the hours. Check the statistics of countries with the highest number of patents filled - they come from countries with the highest number of working hours. Nothing new invented from Jamaica.

 

#7 Do not wait to become an expert.

Do not wait. Learn from your parents. They do not wait to become good parents. They have you and they figure it out how to do it. Nothing will happen if everybody wait to become an expert.  If you lack something, then learn it or ask for other people to advice you. Do whatever it takes to realize the idea, but do not wait.

 

#8 Be alone or work in  a small group

Innovation is a game of ideas and experimentation. It's better to work alone or in a small team to keep the coherence of the design intact. It is really hard to innovate by consensus, where you have to compromise to water down ideas so that it's acceptable to everybody.

 

#9 Figure it out

What matters is the creation, not anything else. Think off your feet, use common sense and  make it happen. Do the work and make it happens.

 

#10 Do not be a sissy (Be a real man / woman)

It's a tough job, but the act of creation is never easy. You are going to get into troubles, received unfair criticisms, do not  have enough experience, nor manpower nor money nor ..If you do not have the right attitude, you will undermine your ideas and they will never become reality.