To Innovate, You Must Be Fearless

If you want to be innovative, you have to learn to overcome your fears.

Did you know that most people consider the fear of public speaking even more severe than the fear of death? Indeed, some people would instead do almost anything else than stand in front of a group and talk. Some businesses are almost as bad when it comes to innovation; I’ve heard this said in several different ways, but it all comes down to one thing, a fear of innovation:

• “Let’s not even go there.”
• “We won’t ever have to worry about that again.”
• They cannot compete with our X, where X can be anything from “customer acquisition strategy” to “customer service” and anything in between. “They can’t beat our X.”
• “Don’t even bother worrying about the next year, let alone the next five years. Let’s just get through this quarter and call it good.

Especially when it comes from companies that are perfectly profitable and still in business, the last one is one of my favorites. Many businesses believe that as long as they can guarantee that the upcoming quarter will be successful, they don’t need to look any further ahead. Of course, if you don’t look up every once in a while, there’s a chance that you’ll fail to notice the brick wall that’s right in front of you.