On Feeding and Caring for an Innovator: Chapter Three
"Who Are You?"
As I typed those words, I could hear the character named Stacey Bridges asking The Stranger that question, just before Bridges died in the movie "High Plains Drifter". If you've read the first two chapters of this series on Innovators, you'll probably be thinking that this should have been the first chapter. My apologies. That's what happens when you write things on the fly.
Who are you: Inventor, Innovator, or Entrepreneur?
Kim Bhasin, in Business Insider, quoted Tom Grasty of Mediashift about inventors and innovators:
"Invention is the "creation of a product or introduction of a process for the first time." Thomas Edison was an inventor.
Innovation happens when someone "improves on or makes a significant contribution" to something that has already been invented. Steve Jobs was an innovator."
Bhasin quoted Grasty further with this illustration:
"If invention is a pebble tossed in the pond, innovation is the rippling effect that pebble causes. Someone has to toss the pebble. That's the inventor. Someone has to recognize the ripple will eventually become a wave. That's the entrepreneur.
"Entrepreneurs don't stop at the water's edge. They watch the ripples and spot the next big wave before it happens. And it's the act of anticipating and riding that "next big wave" that drives the innovative nature in every entrepreneur."
The image on the left was posted on Facebook this morning, and helped spark this installment in the series. Some will think the comparison of Steve Jobs to Dennis Ritchie is a bit cynical. The assertion that Jobs sold "stolen ideas" demands some proof, which, as far as I can tell, was not provided. Many say that Edison stole ideas from colleagues and from his own staff. There are still debates over whether the Wright brothers were first in flight or not.
As Simon Sinek points out in his TED Talk "How Great Leaders Inspire Action", hardly anyone knows the name Samuel Pierpont Langley. They know the Wright brothers, because the Wright brothers had a vision of change and of being first. Langley wanted to be rich, and when the Wright brothers succeeded, he gave up. Jobs had a vision and a drive to be different and to make a difference. Becoming rich to Jobs was a result of pursuing his vision. It wasn't necessarily his vision.
Who Are You, and How Far Will You Go?
Inventors and innovators (visionaries) can be entrepreneurial in their pursuits, but can entrepreneurs be successful without being inventors or innovators? Entrepreneurs who aren't visionaries must either partner with those types of people, hire them, buy or license their ideas, or steal them. The exception to this would be entrepreneurs engaged in providing services such as cleaning crews, contracting, etc. where success relies more on reputation and satisfaction than on the physical products themselves. Even in that case, a visionary can create better ways to provide services and more efficient methods.
Many inventions and innovations are never commercialized because the visionaries responsible for them fail to recognize their own limitations. One thing I learned from my failures was that I needed a team. (That will be the topic for the next chapter, I think.) Even though I have an administration degree and an MBA, it wasn't until I got into the real world that I learned two very important things:
- I hate details
- I hate politics
To ever be successful, I realized that I would have to have a team around me who likes details, and who knows how to work with people to move my company forward. My limitations had to be acknowledged and embraced in order to build a team. Sadly, it took almost 20 years of failure to come to that point.
I know of a visionary who is a sculptor. From his work as a sculptor, he was able to envision something so simple yet so efficient that it would revolutionize the world as we know it.
Why have we never heard of it? He failed to build a team he could trust, that complemented his own strengths and weaknesses. He refused to listen, even when he was paying for the advice.
Mark Cuban often calls visionaries "wantrepreneurs". They come onto the stage of Shark Tank believing they have a business worthy of investment, but what they have is an idea and no ability, knowledge, or drive to commercialize it. They very often get shot down.
Conclusion
The key to commercial success for visionaries lies in realizing their limitations. If you are a visionary, don't despair when you're faced with situations you don't feel comfortable handling. It may just be that you need a team. That team should be made up of people who complement your strengths and weaknesses.