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10 Ways the Most Innovative People Think Differently

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10 Ways the Most Innovative People Think Differently

Success in any industry goes hand-in-hand with innovation; the ability to produce new ideas, provide better solutions, and pioneer new products. The most successful people are not simply the hardest working, they’re the most innovative.

You can hustle and put in endless hours each week, but if you’re not stretching your innovative muscles, you’ll never achieve breakthroughs and success.

From Edison, to Branson, and Cuban, here are 10 ways the most innovative people think differently:

 

1. They constantly look for patterns

It’s called Apophenia: the ability to perceive meaningful patterns within random data. While it’s a universal human tendency, it is more pronounced among innovative thinkers.

Intentionally looking for patterns within your industry will allow you to spot relationships that others cannot. It’s a skill that allows you to ‘predict’ or foresee a problem — and that’s an opportunity for innovation. Great innovators are always finding how the outlier fits into the picture.

 

2. They’re brilliantly lazy

Bill Gates has been quoted as saying, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” Innovators will find the best and easiest route to get a project done. It boils down to efficiency. Innovators live by the saying, “Work smart, not hard.” They don’t just strive to create the best product, but also the best process.

“All great thinkers are initially ridiculed – and eventually revered.” – Robin Sharma

3. They’re obsessive note-takers

Your conscious mind (working memory) can only process small chunks of information at a time. With a cacophony of streaming ideas, great innovators are incessant notetakers. Thomas Edison left 3500 notebooks behind at his death.

When Richard Branson revealed one of his most powerful business tools, it wasn’t a complicated gadget, but carrying an old fashioned notepad wherever he went. He’s always seeking feedback from flight passengers and cabin crew, and using that information to innovate.

Ideas can come from nowhere; your million-dollar idea can come while you’re waiting for your coffee or getting groceries. Keep a compendium of your ideas, it’ll be your trail leading to gold.  

 

4. They preach perfection, but practice progress

Perfectionism can be crippling, but discarding it altogether is an open door for mediocrity. Great innovators still preach and expect perfection, yet live in the reality of progress. It’s a healthy pendulum-swing between the two. They strive for the ideal, and get work done in the real. The key is to aim for perfection, but keep firing to make progress.

 

5. They’re allied with their fear

Described as a “quirky creative genius,” founder of Kidrobot and Ello, Paul Budnitz says the key to innovation is your relationship with fear:

Every one of my successful ventures has faced bankruptcy, come close to losing key employees, or just collapsed along the way. But by welcoming fear you also get the benefit of what being afraid brings: heightened awareness, compassion for others you are working with, and an unbreakable commitment to survive at all costs.”

Great innovation comes from working with your fear; making it an ally rather than an enemy. See it as an advantageous adrenaline rush.

 

6. They don’t wait for things to break

You’ve heard the adage, “Why fix it if it ain’t broke?” Great innovators don’t wait for things to break, they’re constantly fixing and iterating. The key to staying ahead and being a pioneer is to live by the mantra, “It can always be better.

Rather than wait for a problem and then provide a solution, great innovators find ways to ensure the problem will never even exist.

 

7. They understand the creative process

Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, Implementation. Those are the 4 classic stages of the creative process. One of the most crucial stages, just before the “eureka” moment is “Incubation.” Great innovators have always found novel ways to nurture this stage of creativity; taking long showers, going for a walk in nature, doing yoga headstands.

Incubation is your unconscious process of synthesizing the information you encountered through your conscious work. The intentional detachment results in a “marinating” of ideas and then solutions coming “out of the blue.”

 

8. They pursue multiple streams

Elon Musk has Tesla, and Solar City. Mark Cuban has too many to name, on top of the Mavericks. It’s more than just maximizing income, a hallmark of great innovators is nurturing multiple interests. Just like the creative process, alternative interests and ventures overlap and feed off of each other.

Giving yourself opportunities to pursue multiple projects not only breaks the psychological-bottleneck of pursuing one single venture, but expands your knowledge and overall business acumen.

“Being different and thinking different makes a person unforgettable. History does not remember the forgettable.” – Suzy Kassem

9. They possess a healthy arrogance

It may come across as arrogance, but great innovators are highly confident. It’s not just good self-esteem, there’s a practical use — when Gallup studied entrepreneurial talent they found that people with high confidence performed better in stressful situations. When others see risk, highly confident and innovative people see opportunity; when others see roadblocks and potential failure, they see victory.

A key part of innovation is implementation — it’s not being the first to come up with the idea, but having the boldness to be the first to produce it. A healthy arrogance will give you the boldness to take action.

 

10. They embrace paradoxical thinking

Great innovators do not see the world in black and white. While many people come to “either/or” conclusions, they strive to see “both/and.” There was a time when cell phones only made calls, and music devices only played music — it was “either/or” — but innovators overlook conventional boundaries.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, the great American novelist said it best, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Which one of these ideas are you going to implement into your life today? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

A refugee from Vietnam, raised in Australia, with a BA from Texas, Thai writes for many publications including The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, and Addicted2Success. A professional chef, international kickboxer, and spiritual teacher, Thai is passionate about helping people become the best version of themselves. Signup for his free weekly Infographics at TheUtopianLife.com | Connect @ThaiWins | On Facebook 

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How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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