A friend of mine visited Elon Musk's Space X factory in LA and mentioned the unbelievable spirit that he felt there. It is inspiring what they do, being the first private spaceship company delivering cargo to the International Space Station. Even if they had some setbacks, the space business is a tough one. Given that Elon successfully runs Tesla and Solar City as well, you can only be astonished. And eventually feel intimated, as if you were just a cave man painting a modern tunnel with some prehistoric tools.
Don't get discouraged and see this as inspiration for your own work. Each one of use can have an impact that is important for those people that we affect positively. Be it crowd sourcing 3D printed prosthetics for children that the non-profit E-Nable is doing, or doing hackathons in Africa like my amazing Italian friend Aurora, or shooting satellites into space to track ships on oceans like Spire.
However big or small, as long as you are passionate about it because it matters and makes people's lives better, do it and let nobody ever discourage you.
Creativity is a superpower that each of us is born with and that we slowly lose when we don't practice it deliberately. And even that many people consider themselves not creative and think that this is the job of the creatives in the company, we must disappoint them. First, creativity is everyone's job; secondly (and reassuringly), everyone can learn it. Most of us have some knowledge and expertise (the more the better), have intelligence to some level, but more importantly, we need to find our passion and drive. Drive and persistence is sometimes way more important than just being intelligent. To structure creative efforts, there are creativity techniques that we can use to be more effective and turn creativity into a habit. I have collected over 130 of such creativity techniques that you can check out.
How easy is it to recognize innovation? Sometimes it's right in your face: A car without a driver? A drug that cures Ebola? A device that you control by waving your hands?
But then there is stuff where many say that there is nothing new with it. All the parts were here before and just assembling it is not innovation. The supposed innovator is just doing some great marketing. Well, fact is that there is really nothing new under the sun. Everything is based on stuff that has been here before. But the way it is combined can lead to a small improvement or a big breakthrough and change everything that we have done in the past.
Innovation is not just limited to technology. Innovation encompasses so much more. Profit models, brand, channels, product processes, services, or customer engagement are just a few. From installing software by typing the code from listings, to selling floppies, downloading it from the internet, via to offering the software on the cloud can be certainly counted as innovative. But paper, magnetic storage, or remote servers are not new. Lets agree that whenever something makes our lives more effective and better, it's a good candidate for being an innovation.
Just remind yourself that nearly everything what we use today only 300 years ago would have been considered witchcraft; with you ending up burning on stakes.
Intrapreneurs are like an immune system for companies. They detect disruptions and innovations coming from outside that could endanger the organization and react to it. They make companies more resilient.
Not everyone is fit to be an intrapreneur. They need to have a number of traits that are rare to find. When you find them, treat them carefully. How? By helping them with skills, tools, activities, metrics, and - very important - the right attitude. To learn more, check out the articles that I wrote below.
This week I saw the future happening with my own eyes. For the first time I spotted the Google self-driving mini-cars that were handed to some locals in the Mountain View / Palo Alto area for a larger test audience. Two teenage girls were taking a ride in a car without steering wheel and I had the chance to explore it while we were waiting for the green light. I wrote an article about it with a short video of the car driving the girls.
When you see how smoothly and safely the car blends into the traffic, you just want to tell traditional car manufacturers where the heck they were wasting their creative energy in the past years? In finding excuses why a self-driving is impossible? Oh well, don't get me started. Here are some reasons why the Google car is so important for humans.
Check out the upcoming Food Tour that will explore the culinary hotspots of Silicon Valley. Only few tickets are left for August 19th-21st!
Today's NSFW - internet lingo for Not Safe For Work - is a perfect poster child of what innovation means, and how fast it is coming. In the viral video-series Kids React! several children are handed the first iPod from 2001 with the request to explain and operate it. And to give their opinion.
I have never felt so old, while laughing so hard at the same time. And the children are just too cute. But this small video with technology that was all the crave in 2001 demonstrates how fast innovation is happening.
