Innovation Principle 20: Be remarkable

Do you want to achieve something amazing, or are you just here to phone in an acceptable, if ultimately forgettable, solution?  Remarkable successes are born of affirmative answers to the former.  Be remarkable.

Great things come from a total, unwavering commitment to being remarkable.

This 20th principle is foundational in the sense that it is an enabler of the desirable behaviors called out in all the other principles.  For example:

• Unless your audience understands your personal commitment to delivering remarkable end results, it's difficult to show a room of folks your half-baked prototype -- they'll only see crappy, half-baked idea.
• If your boss doesn't understand your desire to ship something mind-blowing, she may not get why you are "wasting" valuable project schedule sitting out in a shopping mall, just watching people. 
• Seeing the world through the eyes of a child depends onthe trusting understanding of others so that your observations can be seen as inspirational, not childish.
• Creating a memorable experience requires the total commitment of all contributors to the cause, for the integrity of its execution is defined by the weakest link in the system of delivery.
• Failure can be allowed to suck but instruct when it happens within a culture fill with remarkable people who understand that one achieves remarkability (and stays there) via a process of personal growth fed by a constant trial and error (with an emphasis on the error).
• Recognizing that the mileage a person has is more important than the years they've put in is a statement of the causal link between the primacy of doing and the pursuit of remarkability.  Given a fair and open society, what and how you do far outstrips the importance of status, power, and tenure.

Being remarkable is the source of the grease we need to keep the process innovating moving along.  A broad commitment to being remarkable reduces the friction, smooths out the bumps, and turbocharges the chuzpah we all need to bring cool thingsto life.

How you are guides how things willl be.

Comments

[Austin Pantaleo]

This is great advice. I am a firm believer that being remarkable, whilst maintaining a foundation of integrity, leads to a strong reputation/brand and unforseen opportunities.

Tina Seelig at Stanford puts it best by saying "never miss an opportunity to be fabulous". With this mindset throughout my MBA degree, I have come across opportunities I never could have imagined.

[Brian Driggs]

I was linked to your piece on David E. Davis this afternoon. Someone you probably don't know said I should get to know you. I ended up reading the Davis piece, then all 20 innovation principles.

The idea was to jot down the numbers of the ones that spoke to me, but, by the time I got to #8, I'd written six of them down and drawn out a couple sketches on Post-Its to keep on the periphery here in the cube at the daily grind. #11 went out in quotes on my Twitter feed because, well, sooth.

All in all, the last hour+ has been incredibly rewarding. Now the question is, do I pause and do the point of view exercise with the little pictures (kudos on the tasteful inclusion of Stevesy, by the way), or do I make the jump find out what "Remarkable feels like?"

Hell. There's time for both, methinks.

Just a passing comment from a new subscriber. Cheers.