Quotable Quotes: Of Innovation and Innovators
by Miki Saxon
Yesterday you heard the stories of five innovators, so today I thought we would look at some of the things that have been said about innovation and by innovators.
Just so we are all on the same page, let’s start with Theodore Levitt’s definition, “CREATIVITY is thinking up new things. INNOVATION is doing new things.”
Not that innovation is always welcome—never has been, never will be.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky knew that when he said, “Innovators and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning (and very often at the end) of their careers.”
You know the old saying, ‘if you aren’t moving forward you’re going backwards’?
Francis Bacon knew it well and warns all of us, “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.”
The how of innovation has changed radically over the years, but one thing hasn’t changed. True innovation isn’t something about which you can ask for suggestions. As Steve Jobs said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Steve Jobs
To most people innovation is everything. They can’t wait for the latest version, the newest item, the trendiest trend, the bleeding edge, but not everyone feels that way (I don’t).
I tend to the view of Coco Chanel, “Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics.”
That’s why I’m known as a digital dinosaur.
stockxchng image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/696902
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