Quotes About Innovation

It's not time, Take it easy, Wait and see, It's someone else's turn - none of these stalls are appropriate for a leader in search of change. There's a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth.

People have come to the erroneous conclusion that if they're not willing to start something separate, world-changing, and risky, they have no business starting anything. Somehow, we've fooled ourselves into believing that the project has to have a name, a building, and a stock ticker symbol to matter.

When your art fails, make better art.

It's extremely difficult to find smart people willing to start useful projects. Because sometimes what you start doesn't work. The fact that it doesn't work every time should give you confidence, because it means you're doing something that frightens others.

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.

If a product's future is unlikely to be remarkable – if you can't imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product – it's time to realize that the game has changed. Instead of investing in a dying product, take profits and reinvest them in building something new.

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department." David Packard

Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that's what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that others have to react to. They make change.

Initiative and starting are about neither of these. They are about "let's see" and "try." If there's no clear right answer, perhaps the thing you ought to do is something new. Something new is often the right path when the world is complicated.

Art is original. Marcel Duchamp was an artist when he pioneered Dadaism and installed a urinal in a museum. The second person to install a urinal wasn't an artist, he was a plumber.

Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.

Anyone who says failure is not an option has also ruled out innovation.

Group projects are the exception in school, but they should be the norm.

Successful heretics create their own religions....You can recognize the need for faith in your idea, you can find the tribe you need to support you, and yes, you can create a new religion around your faith. Steve Jobs did it on purpose at Apple and Phil Knight is famous for doing it at Nike.

It's uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. It's uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle. When you identify the discomfort, you've found the place where a leader is needed.

They say the best way to complain is to make things better.

Creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of the artist.

Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map—these are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long.

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

It's clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them. ~ Seth Godin

Delivering unique creativity is hardest of all, because not only do you have to have insight, but you also need to be passionate enough to risk the rejection that delivering a solution can bring. You must ship.

Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.

She solves problems that people haven't predicted, sees things people haven't seen, and connects people who need to be connected.

In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less.