Good reasons not to innovate

Seth Godin asks for surprises. Or more correct, people who can surprise him and the rest of us.

"..if you want the word to spread, if you expect me to take action I've never taken before, it seems to me that you need to do something that hasn't been done before. It might not feel safe, but if you do the safe thing, I guarantee you won't surprise anyone. And if you don't surprise anyone, the word isn't going to spread".

Why aren't people doing more surprising things. Why do they stick to the ordinary?

Well one (ordinary) answer is that some people are more innovative than others. Fine. But here's another explanation, or perhaps an explanation to the ordinary explanation:

Innnovators have to succeed. Otherwhise they are doomed to mediocracy, or even worse, being seen as complete idiots. Let us put this way:

Innovators have the highest gains. If they succed. Thomas Edison, The Wright brothers, Marie Curie, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Ingvar Kamprad....They are all historic or modern heroes.

But how many almost-Bills or just-like-Edisons aren't out there? But they did just not make it. In many cases they lost all of their money and went bankrupt. But more important they lost their respect.

If you go for a more ordinary career the gains don't come close those for an innovator.  Jack Welch, Lou Gerstner, Carly Fiorina, Percy Barnevik and Lee Iacocca. They all have been celebrated. But are they heroes? Well, perhaps Mr Welch is, but the others, hardly. But still they are paid enough to buy what ever they need.

On the other hand. When Fiorina failed to deliver at HP, was she seen as an idiot? No way. The circumstances just weren't nice to her. If you fail when doing what you are supposed to, you aren’t anything wrong, are you?

How do you verify the quality of somebody’s career? If you look at the employer brands you’re among friends. “He’s been working at Microsoft, Nokia, HP and Intel. This guy will bring the experience we need…”. In large organizations key achievements are almost impossible to verify.

And that’s my point. The gains for ordinary people are high enough. They don’t become heroes, but they can be rich. And if they fail, they will still land softly.

Then, why take the risk to look like a complete idiot!