The Sturm und Drang of Innovation

The journey of innovators is virtually never without great stress and trials. Some novice inventors think of something interesting and imagine that it’s just a matter of taking the idea to someone and collecting a fat check, but few can anticipate how difficult the journey can be and how many lessons must be learned. Even seasoned business leaders guiding teams of innovators rarely appreciate what happens at the personal level in their team–the threats to success from unexpected corporate antibodies, the pain of misplaced credit, the disappointment of unresponsive corporate systems, and the multitude of dynamics with other groups and individuals in and out of the corporation.

Sturm und Drang is a great term to describe the experience of innovators or prospective innovators, whether on their own or in corporations. That term means Storm and Stress in German, and refers to a nineteenth-century literary movement that treated the struggles of emotionally-charged individuals going against the grain of  society. That is so much like the journey of successful innovators. The fire in the innovator’s mind makes that individual stand out, or indeed, stand against the tides of society to offer something new and to influence others to adopt it and use it, even when most say it is hopeless and crazy. The journey of the innovator is so often a Sturm and Drang saga.

In Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success, we reveal some of the often hidden fatigue factors and some of the personal barriers to innovation success that can add to much of the Sturm and Drang that innovators face. The journey will never be easy, but some unneccesary stress can be reduced when you know what the barriers will be and how to face them.

Christmas is coming. May we suggest that this book could be a great gift for the innovator, business leader, inventor, or new product developer in your life? A simple way to preview the book is using this short URL: http://tinyurl.com/nofatigue.

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