"In real innovation, being comfortable isn't good" 

~Terry Tietzen

Edatanetworks

 

It just isn't comfortable outside the box. Inside the box its warm and cozy and safe. Outside the box it is cold and harsh and dangerous.

 

To innovate successfully you must try and fail again and again till you hit on just that right combination of ingredients that produces success.

 

When we were building Travelocity we didn't have any paths to follow, hardly anyone to emulate. It was early days in internet commerce and we were charging through the wilderness and making lots of mistakes. 

Our mantra, as an old collegue reminded me the other day was, 'make new mistakes'  We knew we'd fail, but we wanted to insure we learned from those failures and if we were to fail again (and we certainly were) to insure that failure was something that had never happened before.

 

It certainly wasn't comfortable. But it sure was exhilarating and ultimately very successful.

 

"If you reach for the stars you might not get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either" 

~Leo Burnett