Looking for inspiration close by

#1 of 12 Great Qualities of a Social Entrepreneur

A social entrepreneur will be an innovator. Being innovative means doing things differently or doing things that have never been done before. There is a lot written about inspiration, enterprise and innovation. But how does innovation occur?

My experience is that the best ideas are already close by. Sometimes looking at something in an inquisitive way helps you to see the previously unseen. Sometimes successful innovations are completely original, although in my experience more often they’re not.

The best innovations I have been involved in making happen are ideas that were ‘just around the corner’. Such ideas are typically neither original nor do they stare you in the face. They are somewhere in between. They are ideas that are close by but not yet quite visible.

Often the idea is hinted at in a conversation. Or they may be an extension of what is already happening, just doing it slightly differently. They exist in a sort of mental and spiritual peripheral vision.

Three of the most successful enterprises I have grown were initially hinted at in a snippet of a conversation. All I had to do was to listen, discuss and then act.  

Often the role of the innovator is less having the idea than listening for it and making it happen. It was Thomas Edison the great inventor who said, “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” He was right.

Creating Social Enterprise is a book and newsletter by Patrick Nash, lifelong social entrepreneur

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