innovation it's a word that conjures up many images imagination ingenuity creativity a recent article in Wired magazine called it the most overused and yet the most important word in the world today yet I believe it's fraught with myths there's a lot of things that we believe about innovation they're simply not true the ability to innovate for example people think is a location in other words Silicon Valley or Route six in Boston that if they're in that location that automatically innovation happens or they believe it's the environment so they get bean bags or food stations and think by sitting in a bag or having certain kind of food the ideas are just going to sprout out or worse yet they think it's only a select few people that really have the ability to innovate well the fact is we all have the ability to innovate you see it resides in all of us in something I call the entrepreneurial mindset this mindset is something that we can all tap into and we can come up with new ideas and solve problems and have creative solutions if we only try but yet sometimes we believe these myths and therefore we block our ability to do that it's really pretty sad when you think that one of the greatest assets we possess is our entrepreneur mindset when you look at the world today you can see that the gap between what can be imagined and what can be accomplished has never been smaller and so if we are to accomplish some great things we need to tap into our own mantra mindset so what exactly is this entre mindset that I believe everyone possesses well a comprehensive definition states that it's a dynamic process of vision change in creation it requires the application of energy and passion towards the implementation and creation of new ideas and creative solutions it also has a sense to recognize opportunity where others see casts contradiction and confusion now that's a long definition but people say what do I focus on I say maybe the keywords of vision changed creation energy and passion because we all possess that everyone has the ability to dream and to vision everyone has the adaptability to change everyone I believe has a desire to create something in their life and certainly we all have energy and passion that we can put to them but as I tell all my students isn't the one big idea you're looking for it's an exploration of many ideas so you can pivot off those and learn to maybe find the one that's most passionate and most energetic to you remember there is no future believing something can't be done the future is in making something happen by tapping into your entreprenuer morrow better for you and for all of us so now that we know what the entrepot mindset is why is it so difficult for all of us to actually use it or delve into it well I believe there's two major reasons one I think is the what I call the world of paradigms we all know what paradigms are right they are the boundaries the rules the perceptions that we live by there's nothing wrong with a paradigms in and of themselves but when we become so wedded to them that we fail to ask any questions of why they even exist we then start to get into what I call the terminal disease of certainty paradigm and paralysis and when that happens it shuts out all new ideas and all all possible innovations so our mindset just cannot work in it a second major reason is something we do to ourselves or others do to us I call them the idea Stoppers it's when we suggest something new and people have an inadvertent answer back so for example you suggest something new as an idea and the answer you get back is are you kidding or the answer you get back is we've already tried that years ago or even what I call the guilt trip I don't see anything wrong with the way we're doing it now do you I mean how do you answer those things we have to be careful with ideas stammers so I want you to be able to watch what you say to others and be able to dissect what others to you you need to get away from the idea Stoppers break through the paradigms and follow the new ideas because that's the way the entre mindset works well now we've had time to ponder the various aspects of the entrence at we've looked at the importance of it we've looked at the definition of it we've even looked at some of the obstacles to actually using it so the question becomes what's the next step well the next step is implementation and when we look at implementation it's really up to you as I tell all of my students the decision to act entrepreneurial II is and always will remain with you so becomes a personal decision as you ponder that decision I think about a commercial has done years ago by Apple Computer where the narrator came on TV and said here's to the crazy ones to the rebels to those who think differently and while some people see those people as crazy we see genius because those people who think they can change the world are the ones who usually do and the reason I like that commercial is because when you think about it it exemplifies the courage and the belief that you have to have with your new ideas another way to look at is something that I tell many of my students and corporate clients and that is if you don't want to tap into the antral mindset you have to expect more than others think is practical you have to dare more than others think is wise you have to dream more than others think is possible and you have to risk more than others think is safe and if you tap into those elements you've tapped into the essence of the antral mindset and by so doing you will tap into the greatest part of your own true spirits you