Finding Solutions

In a seminar the other day I learned that 2.5% of people are considered innovators. They are the people who think up new ideas that eventually become new products or processes the rest of us adopt.

Then there are the folks who are early adopters, about 12.5% of the population. They are the ones who actively seek new things to use, buy and incorporate into their lives. Another 35% of folks are normal adopters and represent a lot of us in the main.  Late adopters comprise another 35% while 15% simply don’t respond until the product is no longer available! Even then they don’t always know what it is they are looking for!

Innovators are important to us. They pay attention to their surroundings. They analyze what is missing, what is needed, what results are desired and how all of that can come about with new ways of doing things.

Steve Jobs and his friends invented whole new ways of thinking and merging ideas with other ideas. From these experiments came new ideas and new processes. Whole new products and technologies emerged. Thinking outside the box was the crucial step they took to make these changes possible.

Innovation comes from trying new things. Invention comes from new ideas and old ideas, some pitted against each other to see what happens. To learn new things. To better understand the world that envelopes each of us. All of us. So we can live better with what is available.

That is how synthetic blood was invented to expand blood supplies when needed in emergencies, or to replace rare blood types when in very short supplies.

And synthetic human bone material to replace diseased or destroyed bone being removed by surgery.

Of course there are many other synthetic body parts that have been invented by people using very unusual methods of thinking and synthesizing ideas one with another. That’s how new things are discovered or invented.

We need this in our community. In our nation, too. That’s how our nation was created hundreds of years ago. A grand experiment which was tested and amended over many years. And we are still here. Stronger than ever if not better than ever!

Innovating takes courage to try new things. Courage to fail. Trust in self and others. Faith that good things will come from trying new things.

Throughout my life I've made many mistakes. But I have paid attention to the results. I analyzed these things closely so I could best understand what happened. More importantly I have repeated the actions to learn if the same results or different ones occurred. Intentional mistakes teach us things. Unintended mistakes teach us even more; but we have to stayed focused and realize a mistake has been made. What has it taught us?

Doing nothing, trying nothing, risking nothing is just another way of defining failure.

Yes. We need innovators. And early adopters. This is how changes are born, changes that are needed.

Same with governance. It takes conscious effort and action to find new things we need and can use. Until we do these things we are unaware of what we can do as a people, as a nation.

There are those who feel nothing much that is good will be done in government circles. I disagree. Emphatically. From a website entitled MyTime2Vote comes this quote:

            “We don’t need better politicians. We need more informed voters.”

To my way of thinking that is a very good thought! It takes effort for voters in a free democracy to understand issues, points of view and opinions. It is difficult to discern what is true. Even more difficult is determining what is important and what isn't. You know, we voters/citizens are pummeled by news media and political parties constantly trying to make us think one way or another, or vote one way or another. Truth be known, a lot of what they are spouting has nothing to do with what needs to be done. 

We are the deciders of what’s important. And we need to exercise that authority in voting, in discussing issues with others, and in reading and writing about issues. All so we understand the world around us.

Don’t sell your authority to others. They may not be worthy to own your authority. Here’s a thought that makes it a little clearer:

“The next time someone tells you that Obama is destroying the economy, remind them that the stock market and corporate profits are at all-time highs.  When they tell you that this hasn't helped them any, remind them they've just admitted that trickle-down economics doesn't work!”  ~Boom

All of this is open to debate. Debate, however, does not represent truth entirely. That is usually embedded in other layers of understanding we have to work to discover.

My advice?  Get busy. You need to do this. We all need you to do this for all of our sake!

January 21, 2014