Why Does America Prize Creativity and Invention?

Originally posted on: Smithsonian 11/12/15

First, let me assert that America’s culture is the one absolute advantage that the nation continues to enjoy in a world that has recognized the competitive importance of innovation. Countries from Finland to China, from Dubai to Colombia are pursuing national innovation strategies like there is no tomorrow. Incubators, venture capital, purpose-driven science and social innovation are spreading around the world at warp speed. The elements of culture that enable innovation, however, are harder to transfer across borders.

What are key elements of American culture that make up the “secret sauce” of innovation? For a start, forgiveness of failure, tolerance of risk and an appetite for apparently off-the-wall ideas. In Silicon Valley, the saying goes that if you haven’t failed at least once or twice, you’re not trying hard enough. Try saying that to a Finnish bank or a Chinese government official. Tolerance of risk is an important enabler of entrepreneurial speed, which in turn is an important determinant of competitiveness. And a willingness to listen to ideas, no matter how outlandish, has been the seed corn for countless ventures that are now seen as mainstream.

In addition, the American idea is inextricably interwoven with the notion of the frontier, which, though historically complex, still figures in our imagination as a continuously self-refreshing horizon of opportunity and possibility, and a vision of ourselves as pioneers. A key element of American frontier culture was the barn-raising, the notion that a newcomer could expect a day’s labor from his neighbors to construct his or her barn, and that he or she would be expected to reciprocate in turn for the next newcomer. This barn-raising spirit is alive and well in the hotbeds of American innovation where newcomers are supported, connections are made and the whole continues to be much greater than the sum of its parts.

John Kao is a former Harvard Business School professor and the founder and CEO of EdgeMakers. The Economist has called him “Mr. Creativity” and a “serial innovator.”