“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Great accomplishments depend not so much on ingenuity as on hard work.”
– Thomas Edison
We live in a culture that values and encourages innovation. In the information age, it’s all about the nimblest, the boldest and most inventive disruptor. We revere the likes of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk who are able to disrupt industries and deliver something radically new.
But innovation is only the tip of the iceberg; it’s the little we experience that is the product of countless hours of hard work behind the scenes.
We are less inclined to talk of Thomas Edison’s many, many famous failings before inventing the lightbulb, because it’s hard to deny that the man was both an innovator and a genius – despite these failings. He knew that his best innovations would be the product of excessive hard work. If you’ve read Elon Musk’s bio, you’ll know that he’s no different.
Innovation doesn’t have to look like a lightbulb, an iPod or an electric car; it’s about seeing things differently and getting a new perspective on an old problem. Tackling everyday tasks and frustrations in new ways through thinking differently about them is also innovation.
Of the everyday challenges and chores, one of the most common bugbears is money. How to preserve it, how to spend it, how to safeguard and invest it. Here, too, innovation can help – not with reinventing the wheel, but with a fresh perspective from a professional on how to tweak and change to get more out of your money so that it solves more of those everyday problems.
This kind of innovation takes perspiration, of course, just like Thomas Edison said. It also takes partnership with someone who can see the things you can’t see and suggest solutions you never thought of in order to do with your money what’s never been done.
Go on, challenge yourself to see your everyday money issues from a new angle. Put in the work and also, get the one underrated ingredient necessary for innovating the everyday: a trusted professional who can see it with new eyes. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.