The Secret to Innovation

Everyone has a paradigm, a perception of reality, and a mental framework that they think within. To them, their perception of reality shapes what they believe to be “normal”.

But what is normal?

Nikola Tesla was an inventor from that past that pioneered some of the most outrageous and extraordinary innovations. His most famous innovations include alternating current, wireless radio, wireless power transfer, and the ubiquitous tesla coil.

Mr. Tesla’s perception of reality and what was possible reached beyond the box that people of his generation thought within.

The box told him that alternating current would never be adopted.

Innovating without Boxes

There are countless stories of individuals who were told that they could never amount to anything, that their invention would never work, or that their ideas were outright ridiculous. But yet, these are the people that have stepped forward and completely revolutionized the world that they lived in.

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” — Albert Einstein

There are so many things that we’ve been socially conditioned to accept. We accept it because it is a box that has been passed down for generations. However, we don’t always recognize how much the box has changed prior to it being passed down to us, nor do we always recognize how much of a change the box is about to experience.

Maybe you’re sitting there asking yourself the same question right now. Maybe you’re wondering how blogging about your ideas is going to change anything. Maybe you’re concerned about disrupting traditions in your family, maybe you’re afraid of stepping out into the unknown.

Humans make new discoveries all the time, and somewhere down the line, if you aren’t the one to think outside the box and revolutionize what people think, someone else will. Someone else is going to make a new discovery that changes everything, and you’ll be faced with a shift in the way that you see things whether you like it or not.

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” — John Cage

And when you begin to see things outside of the box that has been widely accepted, “normal” looks different to you.

What are some ridiculous ideas that you have that other people have dismissed as crazy?