MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

One of the biggest traps that stops many entre­pre­neurs from being suc­cess­ful is what I would like to call “the inno­va­tion trap.”

What is the inno­va­tion trap?

The inno­va­tion trap is that many peo­ple sit wait­ing around for the big idea to hit them.  They are won­der­ing and wait­ing for the “Eureka” moment to arrive. 

Peo­ple want to believe that great ideas come to us in a moment of bril­liance, most often while we are tak­ing a shower in the morn­ing or are still deep asleep at night and wake up all of a sud­den when the big “aha” moment strikes.

To all of you wait­ing for this moment I say “wake up” and don’t wait for these moments to come.  There is a rea­son why the famous French inven­tor Louis Pas­teur said “chance favors the pre­pared mind” and why Thomas Edi­son said “inno­va­tion is 99% perspiration.” 

Worse, many peo­ple that try a new idea but don’t suc­ceed right away give up too early.  Inno­va­tion is far more about incre­men­tal inno­va­tion and con­tin­u­ous improve­ment than about the “Eureka” moment. 

There is good news and bad news in real­iz­ing the truth in this.  The bad news is that your “Eureka” moment might never come.  The good news is that you can finally stop mak­ing excuses.  First of all, don’t wait for the big idea to hit you.  Just get started inno­vat­ing and never stop. 

I would like to wrap up with one quote from Peter Drucker.

“Suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neurs do not wait until the Muse kisses them and gives them a ‘bright idea’: They go to work.  Alto­gether they do not look for the ‘big­gie,’ the inno­va­tion that will ‘rev­o­lu­tion­ize the indus­try,’ cre­ate a ‘billion-dollar busi­ness’ or ‘make one rich overnight.’  Those entre­pre­neurs who start out with the idea that they’ll make it big — and in a hurry — can be guar­an­teed failure.”

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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