Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Innovation in those Anonymous Times

When the word innovation pops into our minds, one of the ideas that usually surfaces is that of "fame." You know what I mean. Those who innovate get articles written about them, they get buildings named after them and a parade of biographers write their story.

But did you know that this is really a very rare occurance for the innovator? The normal reality is one of anonymity. When God births an idea in your head and begins to work in your heart to develop it, usually it is not done in front of an audience. It is done in a quiet place - an out of the way place.

In fact the good ideas usually take a long time to "cook" as our friend Dr. Hiebert used to say. That cooking is tedious, frustrating and lonely. But there are no shortcuts to it. There are no other avenues to pursue. To innovate you must accept the times of anonymity.

A resource to help you in this process is this week's Innovation Book of the Week - Anonymous.

Check out my review and I hope it is a help and a blessing.

If you have any thoughts on what you have done in those anonymous times, take a minute to share them for all of our readers. That would be a great encouragement.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of annonimity, I can't even remember who this quote came from, but maybe that is appropriate.

"You can achieve anything you want as long as you don't care who gets the credit."

Hard lesson to learn, but what is more important, building God's kingdom, or getting the credit?

YITBOP said...

Book of the weed...hee hee hee...sorry man, I couldn't resist!

BTW, I heard a version of that quote something like:

"A lot more gets done when no one cares who gets the credit."

Nate and Rachelle Dell said...

Even better that Weed is capitalized. Makes me think there is a reason we are talking about anonymity when we are promoting the book of Weed.