The Innovator’s Burden

Take a trip to the past with me. 170 years into the past. Not too far back.

Imagine yourself meandering in the back streets of an industrial part of New York in the 1850’s. It’s early morning on a would-be cloudy day and you aren’t in any rush to get to where you’re going. You occasionally guess what the different sounds you hear are as this part of the city begins to wake up — your mind’s game at least gives you something to think about as there’s little to see.

As you wander along, your curiosity halts you mid-stride — what did you just see? Something your mind registered in a brief glance through an open workshop door demands a second look. You take an odd number of steps back and turn toward the door through which you can hear the loud cranking and clanking of chains and metal. You keep silent at a distance as you peek into this workroom.

Here’s one way you may describe what transpired:

“I saw a metal compartment that was empty at first. A moment later, a door slid shut and I heard strange sounds that continued for a while and then stopped. And then started again. I waited. And right there before my eyes, the door opened once again and a man had appeared in this same compartment which, a moment ago, was completely empty!”

But that’s just one way. Let’s get back to your story.

You stumble forward in awe, tripping then falling clumsily into the workshop. The man emerges from this steel compartment looking straight in your direction. You’re scared and confused but don’t have it in you to run. He walks up to you and helps you up, introducing himself and asking whether you’re okay. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost! What’s wrong?” To which you, eyes darting between this mysterious man and the steel compartment, simply raise your arm and point toward this…strange thing.

The man, effortlessly esoteric, walks you towards the device. He ushers you into it to show you what it does. You gladly agree. Your adventurous mind is more than eager. You walk into this ‘steel closet’ with the man who shows you where to stand. He then pushes a lever and the doors slowly groan shut. It’s dark. You’re nervous. It’s silent. And then you hear a ‘hard-to-immediately-describe’ sound and start to feel a strange sensation about your entire body. Almost as if you’re…“moving”? But as soon as it starts to feel normal, you feel lighter and suddenly, the indescribable sound… stops. It’s silent. And then the doors creak open and as your eyes adjust to the light again, you’re awestruck!

It can’t be!

You’re frozen in place at first. Briefly. But then you nervously follow the man who has now stepped out. How is this possible? The entire world around you has changed. You’re no longer in the workshop. You have been transported to…a different ‘place’? Where are you? It’s all very confusing. You rub your eyes as though it’ll change what’s in front of you so that it can make sense. It doesn’t.

The man’s voice is a welcome break from the silence that’s filled your now-blank mind. “I present to you the ‘mechanized hoisting device’” he announces proudly, a wide grin on his face.

At this point, you’re imagining how you’re going to describe this to your friends. Your thoughts may sound something like this:

“There’s a steel doorway. This doorway opens up into a large sealed box that you walk into and turn back around to face the doors you came through. Inside, you push a lever with numbers above it, stand back and wait. It goes dark and your body feels a strange sensation. It feels as if you’re moving. When the door opens again, you step out and appear in a completely different place.”

Of course this is just a hypothetical scenario, but bear with me. There’s a point to all this.

What we’re accustomed to in an elevator (or lift…depending on where you’re from), was once novel. It was once the latest invention that was going to change how we used the space around us and above us.

Once probably considered a magic doorway. One that swallowed people and made them disappear! If by no one else then at least by ‘you and your friends’ in our earlier story.

The idea may have sounded outrageous when conceived. Now it’s an ordinary part of life. We don’t even pause for a second to think about how to use them.

As with all things new…at one point they sound far-fetched. Fast forward into the future & no one even gives a second thought to how these contraptions altered “reality” and threw out the notion of “impossible”. There once was a “reality” in which a clock, a light-bulb, a printing press, an airplane, a telephone, a personal computer, pretty much everything you consider ‘normal’ all sounded… you get the drift?

I propose that we change the notion of “impossible” to “not currently possible”. Many things that we hold as ordinary today were once “impossible” but some ‘crazy’ people challenged the impossible. They conceived ideas that were ridiculed because people aren’t comfortable with what they don’t understand. Especially where these ideas challenge the norm — the comfort zone. The burden of innovation is the willingness to continue to appear ‘mad’ until you aren’t…and then the world moves on.

In a not-so-distant future much of what we use today, much of what we ‘know’ today, will be insignificant or even ruled untrue. So be cautious how firmly you allow your mind to hold on only to be limited by present reality and how quickly you declare an idea you don’t agree with or fully grasp “impossible”.

To the innovators: Your mind is a gift. Use your privilege to move others forward and create a better future for all. For the generations that you won’t live to see. You may…no, you?will?be misunderstood. It’s burdensome to be misunderstood. But this is your burden to bear. Don’t bow to society’s ‘normal’. The world needs you not to…they just don’t know it yet.