A google search of word “innovation” leads me to 352,000,000 results in .26 secs. This shows how innovation has become synonym to our existence in 21st century. Whether it is a corporation or an individual, innovation transcends industries, cultures and geographical boundaries and much more.
Has the change in mindset towards innovation been sudden? Or, is it an age old trait of human civilization that we have inherited from our forefathers which has augmented to its current state due to advancements in science and technology?
Human race has constantly evolved through ages; beauty of it is that we evolve every sec of our lives to be better. We learn from our experiences and explore new options to make things around us even better for betterment of our lives. My theory is, unconsciously a gene not found in books of genetics called “innovation” got added to our DNA.
Webster defines innovation as an act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods. In fact, an idea is the main ingredient of primordial soup to innovation which along with faith gets it to reality. Story of innovation will be incomplete if we don’t tell what makes us, humans, take a voyage to unknowns, create something new, invigorating and make something unimaginable imaginable. We inadvertently desire to get rid of problems this mundane world inflicts on us. Invariably we go out to solve that problem and while figuring out a solution to that problem, sometimes we stumble upon another problem inherent or self-created. We go out to solve this new problem and the cycle of pursuit of excellence and problem solving continues with new solutions coming out on and on.
The problems themselves are infinite and touch diverse set of knowledge areas: from arts to sciences, from space to uncharted oceans, from philosophy to questions of our own existence. It is the power of human mind and imagination that formulates a set of hypotheses ready to explore as potential solutions. In this pursuit of excellence another key ingredient that plays critical role is “failure”. Failure paves the way to success. Each time we fail, it helps us eliminate wrong options, gives us opportunity to reinvent ourselves and brings us a step closer towards our solutions.
Innovation truly is a story of human ingenuity, perseverance and traits which all of us have, cleverly intertwined to our human-self. More we explore it more it grows, less we use it more we lose it. Let us all explore what innovative self we have to offer for the betterment of humanity. I will end this blog post with a Sanskrit shaloka from The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad, an old Sanskrit text, which clearly captures my definition of innovation.
"Asato mā sad gamaya - "From ignorance, lead me to truth;
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya - From darkness, lead me to light;
Mṛtyormā amṛtam gamaya - From death, lead me to immortality
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