Innovation is Not The Answer

Innovation is not the holy grail of business success that many gurus claim it is.

“We went from zero to 2 Billion and we never had an original idea.”

Jim Estill, speaking at TEDx Times Square

Jim Estill built his first business on two unoriginal ideas – courtesy and strong work ethic.

He later started another business during his last year in university by accident. He built that business to one with $2 billion in sales. Along the way he didn’t innovate. He simply learned and copied from others. His point is that it’s not the ideas that matter it’s all in the implementation.

Action counts.

Coupled closely with that action is the speed of action. Urgency is more important than perfection. You can probably talk about successful companies and individuals who are far from perfect. They didn’t let the lack of perfection stop them from acting.

Although Jim didn’t mention it in this talk, one of his mantras is “Fail fast, fail often and fail cheap”.

Don’t worry about the possibility of bruises and scrapped knees get on the bike and ride it.

Enjoy the video below. Jim’s presentation starts about six minutes in and it’s only about seven minutes long.

George Torok Host of Business in Motion Business Speaker Listen to Business in Motion audio PodCasts On iTunes Business in Motion on Facebook