I had the pleasure of attending a talk that Guy Kawasaki gave the other day at my work. Now I read his blog, am friends with a friend of his (you know who you are) and know of him generally from the industry. I can honestly say that he is one of the best presenters that I have ever heard speak and his talk was one of the best I have heard in a long time. If you have not had the opportunity to hear him speak, I suggest you figure out when he is coming to a town near you and get a ticket.

He spoke about th art of innovation, and a lot of what he said really grabbed me and was truly inspirational. One thing in particular that has stuck out in my mind since I heard him speak (it was Tuesday for those keeping track, so the fact that I have retained it until now means that it must be really good) was the topic of jumping to the next curve. At first I was not sure where he was going with it, but once he got into his examples, it was painstakingly clear what he meant. When you are so entrenched with your current product set and so concerned with being on a level playing field as your competitors, you are in a constant state of improvements. Now this is not a bad thing, especially if your product(s) need to catch up to the competition in order for you to keep your head above water. What Guy is talking about here is not looking at your needed improvements, but rather taking a step back and looking at what you are not seeing, what is going to get you ahead of your competition. This is what innovation is about, thinking ahead of what the competition is doing, zigging when everyone else is zagging (thanks Noah for that one, and you are welcome for 2 links in one post), thinking outside of the box. Whatever you want to call it, it is what you need to be doing if you want to be on the bleeding edge.

As Guy points out, there will be naysayers that tell you it cannot be done, that it does not make sense, that there is not enough money in the world to achieve what you want to achieve (and he admits that he has been one of them on occasion), but whatever they say, you have to be in denial. You have to turn a deft ear to what they are saying and keep moving forward. Use their negativity as fuel for your fire. Whatever it is that you want to do, just go for it. There is never a better time than the current to take a chance, and you will never know if you do not try.

If you want to change the world (or some small part), you need to take the blinders off and jump to the next curve.