“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used to create them.”
Albert Einstein
Innovation doesn’t need to be hard work. Our modern age has equated innovation with research and development, industrialised and commercialised it and made it feel like hard work. It’s also created a culture of perfectionism, where we’ve become afraid to innovate because we might fail.
But, as Brené Brown writes: there is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.
Innovation doesn’t need to be about hard work or perfectionism; it also doesn’t have to be about market-leading ideas. It can be about finding new ways to thrive in our personal lives. This shift in thinking, removing boundaries and limiting beliefs, is the first step to exploring innovation in our own lives. This is how we change our thinking and embrace what Albert Einstein was trying to say.
Ultimately, innovation is the process of change that creates and grows wealth. When we view it like this, we can start to see that innovation can happen anywhere and everywhere in life; from how we look after our bodies and minds, to how we look after our relationships and finances.
The first challenge we face is in identifying areas where innovation is needed. Simply put – we need to identify problem areas or blind spots to which we need to find a solution. Innovation happens when we can solve a problem in a new way whilst adding value. Steve Jobs once said that innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat.
At WellsFaber, it’s about seeing what’s holding you back from thriving. And for every single person, it’s a different combination of events, beliefs and behaviours in our lives, each affecting our wealth differently.
Once we’ve started to shift our thinking and identify opportunities, we gain momentum to act and sustain the innovative change that will help us thrive. Innovation then becomes something we want to do, and we can find new energy, ideas and connections to create and grow our wealth.