Forget innovation

“Forget innovation: focus on being good. Most products out in the world are not very good. You rarely need a breakthrough to improve things, beat the competition, or help people suffering from a problem. If you carefully study the problem you’re trying to solve, you will discover many clear ways to make it better. That’s the best place to start. If you solve a problem for customers that makes them happy and earns you money, do you really think they will care whether it’s innovative? They just want their problems solved. If you cured cancer conventionally, would patients refuse, saying, “But it’s not innovative!” Of course not, so don’t worry. Use the workman-like language of people who are later called innovators: problem, prototype, experiment, design, and solution, instead of the jargon of breakthrough, radical, game-changing, and innovative. This keeps you low to the ground, and prevents your ego from distracting you away from simply making good things.”

From The Myths of Innovation, by Scott Berkun, p. 163