Innovating Your Way to Success

The calendar is chock full of fun facts like this: "The first
successful parachute jump from a MOVING airplane was made by Captain
Berry at St. Louis, Missouri in 1912." Naturally my mind immediately
jumped in wonder to the first successful parachute jump from a NON
MOVING airplane. Has there ever been one?

I also learned about the skills of a funambulist. What is a
funambulist? A tightrope walker! Better issue a warning to my next
challenger at Trivial Pursuit!

Finally, I discovered Andrew Jackson was the first US President to
ride on a tran.

>From there my brain immediately jumped from President on a train to
Trains + President = Whistle Stop Tour.

With some supportive help from my favored Search Engine, Google, I
quickly learned some fascinating details even above and beyond Whistle
Stop Tours. I studied my way into the delightful path of innovation.

For example, did you know that the first president of the United States,
George Washington, took an earlier version of a Whistle Stop Tour? He
took a "Ship Tour" of the Eastern Sea Board while he was in office.
Reportedly the citizens of New Hampshire had an especially intense
celebration for Washington. They reverently compared their President
to royalty or deity.

Impressing the American citizenry using common modes of transportation
is as old as the USA. The main difference is how innovatively
individuals have used this tool. From here, my brain leap frogged to
asking this question: How could anyone leverage something ordinary
to create something truly extraordinary?

While Presidents Taft, Wilson, and both Roosevelts used Train
Transportation as a campaign method, it was Harry Truman who made the
Whistle Stop Tour into a franchise.

He took something that his predecessors had tried and used successfully
and exponentially improved the method right back into re-election! As
history has shown us, it was TRUMAN who defeated DEWEY. Not the other
way around.

Innovators create success.

How do they do it?

1. They listen to the passion within their hearts and subsequently
take action towards their vision. They are not passively waiting for
someone else to do something, they are creating life. They are
collaborating with "the flow".

2. They follow the sometimes unusual path of the strongest computer at
their disposal every moment of every day. Their Brain! Did I know that
reading some trivia would invite me to write about innovation? Nope!
Did I benefit from going with it? Yes! Did You?

3. They study past methods of success and determine how to make small
improvements that when added together make a huge difference.
Instead of looking at the cavernous difference between here and there,
they focus on the next step on the bridge and build from it.

4. They are willing to step up to the plate repeatedly when others are
not. It reminds me of the many stories of baseball greats with huge
hitting successes. Those same successes also had many "failures".
Often those with the most home runs also have the highest number of
strikeouts.

5. They take A and add B and come up with a surprising WXYZ as the
solution. While others see A and B adding up to AB, innovators see
the possibilities inherent in synchronicity. They are not satisfied
with the status quo. As Harry Truman said, "Why try again? There is
business to finish!"

In what ways will you begin to bring an innovative brand of thinking
into your own success in life?

How can you take YOUR "A" and YOUR "B" to equal YOUR "WXYZ"? Each
person on the planet has certain assets at his or her disposal.
Taking a couple of YOUR assets (perhaps you have thought of these as
your personal gifts both tangible and intangible) and mixing them up
in a new way will bring uncommon success when you allow them to nourish
each other. Get out of the way as you grow alongside them!

What dazzling orchestrations is your brain playing that you might have
been too busy to notice? One of the most effective methods of keeping
your brain in tip top shape is to actively seek out the connections it
is constantly making and using them as the seeds to more greatness in
your life.

What is your current "batting" average? Are you getting enough "at
bats" for it to mean anything? In other words, if you are not getting
out there and creating on a regular basis what will happen? Nothing.
And more of what? Nothing. It takes time, diligence and repetition
to see the outcomes you most desire.

Decide today to think and perform innovatively. Leverage what you've
got to go where you long to go.

Take the path towards YOUR Whistle Stop Tour. There is a world out
there waiting for you!