Big and Small Ambitions
I've been reading a wonderful book called Innovating (available here on Amazon), by my friend Donald Farmer. It is full of clever, feasible approaches to making something new.
Even though Donald's ideas are based on a successful career developing tech products, they are often profoundly applicable in broader contexts — including our personal lives. Consider for example the following line:
If you don't develop skills to match your ambitions, you will struggle to innovate effectively. -Donald Farmer
Someone should write an entire book about that line alone, for it contains deep wisdom worthy of many pages of detailed unpacking into a guide for a life well-lived.
On a related note, I had an interviewer ask me last week to share the stories of how a corporate executive (me in this story) came to learn diesel maintenance, boat design, and computer-aided manufacturing. I think she expected dramatic stories, and I suspect my answer was a bit of a letdown for her. In truth, I learned those things because I saw that those skills were necessary to allow me to live the life that I wanted to live.
There's a great deal of discussion very early in young adults’ lives and very early in the innovation strategizing process, about identifying natural gifts and distinctive skills that are already possessed and then building a life plan or a business plan around those skills and gifts. While I think this advice is well-intentioned, it's actually backwards -- and has the potential to limit greatly our vision of the possible.
Begin with a story you are drawn to, then go develop the skills necessary to make that story real.
Have a super week!
Scott
Keep reading on this thread…
Skill is a Never-ending Process
The Most Important Item for Conquering a Great Challenge: The Right Team
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