Are You A Wheel Re-Inventer?
Inventive, innovative, resourceful. These are all terms that we hear bantered about when discussing top business people and entrepreneurs. And they can all be admirable traits. In fact, I don't now of a single successful entrepreneur that doesn't display all three of these characteristics.
But there are times when our inventiveness can stand in the way of the progress of our success.
Isaac Newton once said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Most of what we think and do everyday has come to us by building on the ideas and accomplishments of those who went before us. Most inventions are improvements on ideas already thought out and in use.
So we could say that inventiveness, innovativeness and resourcefulness are the ability to see the possibilities of expanding on systems that are already proven to be successful.
For example, let's say you are selling a house. Many of us would call our favorite realtor, have him or her list the home on the MLS and sit back and wait for offers. That is a system that works. But can it be improved upon?
Yes, it can. By learning all there is to know about marketing houses, we can pick and choose among proven techniques to improve upon the marketing plan for the house. As different strategies prove useful, we can invent or innovate on them. And as some strategies prove less useful, we can discard them.
This is the evolutionary process of innovation. Take a familiar idea that has a track record of success, try tinkering with it, adopt the changes that work, and discard the changes that don't. Repeat the process.
But how does this relate to "re-inventing the wheel"?
When we decide to use the revolutionary process, we begin from scratch, ignoring the proven strategies in hope of discovering a new process that will make us wildly successful in a shorter time span. In other words, we re-invent the process, rather than build on previous success.
When using the revolutionary process, you could invent a new process or strategy that could alter how things are done now and in the future. But the risk is higher and the chance of success far lower. The revolutionary process is often used by the "rabbits" among us who are looking for the fastest method of arriving at their goal. On the other hand, the "tortoises" who choose the evolutionary method will also arrive at their goals, usually faster and with less stress.
The question you have to ask yourself is "Do I have the time and energy that is necessary to use the revolutionary process (to "re-invent the wheel") and hopefully profit by going where no one has gone before, or would I rather use the evolutionary process with it's slower, steadier and much greater chance of success?
Bob Stovall is a real estate investor and the Director of the Association of Real Estate Investment Professionals (http://AREIP.org), an information source for investors and real estate business persons. AREIP.org features a "Building Consumer Confidence" program to help you get more deals. Bob also writes the AREIP Blog (http://AREIP.org/blog/).
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