Seeding Innovation

1Blind Spots and Big Opportunities

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”

—R. Buckminster Fuller

FAULT LINES ARE emerging in business as we know it, and paradigm blindness is catching a lot of companies off guard.

For those innovating, creating, and designing, the opportunity couldn't be bigger. You only need to look to the auto industry to understand how quickly change is happening, as the car industry electrifies to decarbonize road transportation.

But what gives innovation life? What turns an idea into a successful business model? Most of us have hundreds of ideas every day, but how do we get an idea out of our head and into action?

It has as much to do with mindset as it has to do with access to capital. It has as much to do with the structure of our belief systems and how we handle setbacks as it has to do with the structure of our balance sheets and how we handle the competition. And it has as much to do with how we respond to imposter syndrome and naysayers as it has to do with how we treat our team and employees.

If you're launching a business, a new product, or service, you'll confront all of this. My goal is to not only help you to seed innovation, but also to do it successfully, which means there is a lot to cover, so let's get started.

From the Shower to the Spreadsheet

If you ask entrepreneurs what happened to them when their idea cut loose in their brain, they'll tell you it took on a creative life of its own. It became ...