Innovate Community
It's not the idea, it is what you do with it that matters. Why do people start businesses, or re-invent them? Why do some go against the tides of the masses looking for an answer to what a small still voice keeps saying?
Humans like to make useful things.
Turn off the chatter. Tap into the power of what your mind already knows. It can't be forced, but can be encouraged. Get away from the constant flow of the world; it will keep on turning without your attention. Focus on solutions. Making things better. Workable solutions. Think different.
Prospecting at Dinosaur State Park.
“Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.”
“Jackson's trip had been made ‘on a dare, a fifty dollar bet,' Dayton said, ‘in a men's club in San Francisco, when in front of Jackson, some gentlemen had pooh-poohed the future of the horseless carriage.' Jackson had had almost no automotive experience, Dayton continued, and yet he was going to try to do what many automotive experts had tried and failed miserably to do: to drive all the way to New York City in less than ninety days. The story, he said, had everything. It was about freedom, good old American perseverance, the open road; there was humor and the overcoming of obstacles, and because others joined the quest, it was like a race, too, he went on, and it showed the country, all of it, on the cusp of extraordinary change.”
– from Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns, a Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf.
Found growing in the bottom layer of an old woodpile. Growing despite the odds, this seedling was then planted. Tenacity takes gumption.
tending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely.
synonyms: firm, tight, fast, clinging;
not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined.
synonyms: persevering, persistent, determined, dogged, strong-willed, tireless, indefatigable, resolute, patient, unflagging, staunch, steadfast, untiring, unwavering, unswerving, unshakable, unyielding, insistent; persisting in existence; not easily dispelled.
When you are in a field or on the road and have to think for yourself, that's innovation on the fly.
Sky, trees, earth. The world needs your ideas.
Pages in a book or mushroom gills? Depends on who is looking – a small child or an adult.
“I need less water” is what is written on the paper tag along with other instructions. Observe plants and animals communicate without words by watching them thrive or exhibit being less than happy and you will find solutions to apply to other arenas in life.
“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books.”
In 2015, look for more feature stories about tenacious, independent thinkers, do-ers and business ingenuity. People who know the value of good land and a handshake and of accomplishments that take hard work and dedication.
Shop local when you can. Look for those quirky products before they hit the big time. Taste what fresh tastes like – take a chance and walk into that farm store, shop or local festival and really savor what makes it different. Support the independents that make it that way and enrich your community or one that has an identity all its own.
An economic impact study, commissioned by the Andersonville Development Corporation, finds that “locally owned businesses generate 70 percent more local economic impact per square foot than chain stores. The study’s authors, Dan Houston and Matt Cunningham of Civic Economics, analyzed ten locally owned restaurants, retail stores, and service providers in the Andersonville neighborhood on Chicago’s north side and compared them with ten national chains competing in the same categories. They found that spending $100 at one of the neighborhood’s independent businesses creates $68 in additional local economic activity, while spending $100 at a chain produces only $43 worth of local impact. 
They also found that the local businesses generated slightly more sales per square foot compared to the chains ($263 versus $243). Because chains funnel more of this revenue out of the local economy, the study concluded that, for every square foot of space occupied by a chain, the local economic impact is $105, compared to $179 for every square foot occupied by an independent business.”
Hmm.
