the three ‘c’s of innovation

There are three essential components to innovation — courage, commitment and contribution.

Testing a new idea and breathing life into it requires courage. An innovator has to have guts to show up with something new, something that has good chances of not working. It’s going against the flow of the norm, where everyone follows a certain template and are encouraged to fit their life and thinking in a predefined mould.

No matter what opinions come an innovator’s way, she has an unwavering commitment towards her mission, her purpose and her creation. It’s about staying disciplined, making sacrifices, pursuing excellence, and not getting seduced by the temptations that society provides. To be relentless when the odds are not in her favor.

An important driving force that propels both courage and commitment is contribution. Having a vision to contribute makes it easier to develop both the above-mentioned virtues towards creating something new and the overall process of innovation, no matter how grueling it becomes.

As Seth Godin puts it, innovation is not about being popular, profitable or successful. It’s good to be those things, but it doesn’t imply that you’re an innovator.

Innovation is all about having guts, grit and generosity.