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out. Ask yourself: what qualities do I have that are good for innovation? What
qualities do I need to develop? Understand why these qualities matter. Don't
necessarily focus on your weaknesses, but enhance your strength and mitigate
your weaknesses (review Chapter 4).
Habits of Innovators
Here are seven habits found in highly innovative and creative people that I've
organized and summarized from Scott Berkun's The Myths of Innovation [4] .
Persistence
Innovation rarely happens overnight. It involves more than just great ideas.
You need faith, hard work, and focus to keep your persistence going. Don't be
deterred by difficulties; innovation by nature takes time and there are challenges
at every stage. Take it from the man who gave us the light bulb:
Invention is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration
Thomas A. Edison
Remove Self-limiting Inhibitions
As discussed in previous chapters, often the number one person who gets in our
way is ourself. Get out of your own way! How many times have you considered
an idea and before you have even stood up from your thinking chair you have
talked yourself out of it? A few years ago I was considering the development
of a product for biomechanical analysis that could be used in the entertainment
industry and the athletic industry. This idea was based on some research and
expert witness testimonies I had conducted, and I got the idea because I had to
do some research analysis that wasn't really possible at the time because the
resources weren't there. All I had were 2-D figures, and I needed 3-D figures in
order to do a full biomechanical analysis. I wrote down a little paragraph about
it, and I bounced the idea off my husband and a few other people, and I received
plenty of positive feedback from my inner circle. But when I sat down to think
about it, I started thinking about why it wouldn't work. While it's important to
understand those challenges, I effectively talked myself out of further pursuing
it without doing any research. I analyzed and reasoned that I didn't have the
resources, the technology was not quite ready for such an innovation and, if so,
I probably wouldn't be able to find someone to provide the funding I needed to
create a prototype. So I put that idea on the shelf for over a year. Today, much
to my sadness, I'm seeing an innovation that is very close to that idea. With the
pace of technology I could have clearly been in the running for creating this
technology, but I talked myself out of it and never gave myself a chance.
Free yourself from these constraints you've created. Whether you are an
over-analyzer and think your idea is impossible, or you don't think you are bril-
liant and wonderful, it just isn't true. Be open to new ideas and don't set limits;
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