Innovation and Hard Work

I think we all have to be reminded from time to time that ideas alone don't "pay the rent." We have to be willing and able to work to make our great ideas into reality.

Groundbreaking management theorist Peter Drucker (Peter F. Drucker, The Essential Drucker, Harper, 2001) said:

"There are innovators who are 'kissed by the Muses,' and whose innovations are the result of a 'flash of genius' rather than of hard, organized, purposeful work. ...

But also, contrary to popular belief in the romance of invention and innovation, 'flashes of genius' are uncommonly rare. What is worse, I know of not one such 'flash of genius' that turned into an innovation. They all remained brilliant ideas.



An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It should do only one thing; otherwise it confuses. If it is not simple, it won't work. ... All effective innovations are breathtakingly simple. Indeed, the greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, 'This is obvious. Why didn't I think of it?' "

All this reminds me of the quotation, "Ideas are funny things, they don't work unless we do."