The Sunday Mail
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
Great institutions and communities rise and fall because of decisions made by individual leaders.
Leaders who dare to change the status quo, think differently and influence. Live in your time zone and impact your timeline. Choose to innovate where you are and make a difference.
All spheres — be they science, business, society or politics — are moved forward by innovators. Without innovation, progress and development stagnate. Innovators are always in demand because they push boundaries, redefine limits, challenge convention and bless us with products, services, ideas and concepts that make life different in some way. Those who dare change things, sometimes really do. Innovators always ask why not? They know things are not yet great and could always be improved. They refuse to be blinkered by the boundaries that were set by others. They create new models.
Creativity and innovation are related but they are not the same. Creativity has to do with the creation or generation of ideas, thoughts, forms and concepts.
Innovation has to do with the application of those creative ideas for some good, change or value. For something to qualify as an innovation, it should be something different and must have a positive and valuable impact.
It must deliver some tangible value. Unless it has some impact and delivers a difference that matters, it is just creativity. Creation has to happen and matched with purposeful and intentional application to make a difference.
Innovation loves agility and execution. It is never disappointed with the first version and its imperfections. It is the willingness to keep learning and improving that gives innovation its edge.
Innovators are in demand in every sphere of life and share a number of core qualities. Dare to be an innovator. Believe in your ideas. Challenge the pains you face in a useful and practical way, not as a mere complainer but a thinking creator. The truth is innovators are everywhere, it is just that at times we do not take time to notice them. Here are a few qualities that characterise innovators, which you can use to inspire your own innovator path:
Challenge what is not yet great
Innovators are not satisfied with things as they were and as they are. They are not content with being mere observers in life. They are not content to watch the world go by while they nod knowingly, smile foolishly and complain loudly. They challenge the status quo, always thinking and searching for a better way. They know that there is always room for improvement and frontiers of advancement.
When you accept reality as fixed, you stop thinking and creating new ideas. Reality is malleable. It can be shaped and there is always something better you can do, have or become. As an innovator, you are impatient with present reality. It is not that innovators aim high and miss, but that the majority only aim too low and always think that someone is doing them in.
Crazy people do the impossible
Apple, in an advertising campaign in the 1990s, popularised this statement: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” The quote is apt and moving.
Let your passion loose and dare to do crazy and useful things. Passion is red-hot focused desire. Without passion, there can be no progress or innovation. Innovators actively pursue something with passionate focus. They turn this into a magnificent obsession.
In order to kick-start innovation, focus your passion. Allow worthy and creative questions to envelop you with passion. Your passion fires up thought streams.
Change is about learning.
Learning, for innovators, is an ongoing affair. It has a beginning but it has no ending. You know you are in trouble when you can not answer these questions with direct answers: What would you want to learn? What are you learning at this moment of your life?
Innovators have their eyes and ears open to what they can learn. They learn from others, books, online, papers, observations, failures and successes. Innovators are consummate teachers and they are scholars. They share what they know and also learn from others.
They listen but they can be stubborn about what they believe. No person who has ceased to learn must ever be allowed to wander about in any public space or place of work without close guard.
Keep learning, growing and changing.
Learning is not a daily grind but a great and noble anticipation of adventure and mental stimulation. Every day, you have to choose what you will consciously borrow, what you need to unlearn and what you need to learn.
Sometimes the past keeps interfering with your learning. Learning is more than taking examinations.
Learning means embracing and thriving through change. Change is happening all the time in every aspect.
Innovators embrace and welcome change and, in many cases, they help create it.
Innovation brings change, it disrupts the old order of things. Unless you are willing to change and grow, you will never innovate. Whatever has ceased to grow is now decaying and sorely in need of innovation.
With other people, you can make a difference. People working passionately together deliver miracles to the marketplace and impact communities. Choose your team members carefully. Innovation is a choice that begins with you. It is a choice to live on the edge and not be content with things as they are. It is a choice to think differently.
It is a choice to tap your personal power and give the best you can.
Let some blessing come through you.
Committed to your greatness
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and his website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
