This may seem ironic, but the most successful are those that appear to act with great courage and stupidity towards the absurd. To plunge deep into uncharted waters, they try things without knowing whether or not it will work out. Often they refuse to play safely and at times seem ridiculous and audacious.
What I just said above , described the behaviour of a reformer. Ask anyone if they believe that their company is innovative in order to be competitive, and you can always "yes." But here is where the commitment to innovation often ends up, and empties the basket of promises.
Innovation is about you first and about the organization later. Innovation of the truest sense means that you have to try things without knowing whether you succeed or not. Innovation requires courage, bravery sometimes a philia for the absurd. There is also a willingness to let go of what used to work, which has always worked, and everything that made you successful so far. This means acting with an attitude of great curiosity. Curiosity might have killed the cat , but it also set the log rolling.
What is it that they do differently from the herd? What is it that goes on inside these successful minds? Is there a way to universally discern the successful from the struggling? It’s a shock to some people to learn that high performance factors seldom have to do with superior talents or skills, and have much more to do with the simple act of making choices rationally at the most opportune moments.
I’ve come to think of high performance as similar to conceit. Conceit, as I define it, isn’t about blowing your own trumpet or haughtiness. It basically means fetching your best to everything that you do. It’s about being determined and working with the intent of creating results that benefit the stakeholders in any given situation. This ‘conceit’ means creating value through accomplishment intermittently.