Successful innovators know that not all new ideas will work first time, or even at all. They allow for failure and manage ideas in a way that doesn’t have a serious impact on their day-to-day business.

I always remember what a director of a very innovative technology company said to me once. ‘If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t taking risks. If you aren’t taking risks, you aren’t innovating. Just don’t make the same mistake twice!’

The nature of Innovation is that is hasn’t been done before, so success cannot be  guaranteed. Successful Innovators know that, as Tom Peters said,  you need to ‘do it, fix it, try it’. And try it another way until it works. Too many Innovators give up after the first failure. Sure, not every Innovation will be a success, but most new ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but because they weren’t continued and refined.

But do not persist willy-nilly. Assess your risks as far as you can and measure what worked and what didn’t, then refine. And keep testing!

Download a summary of the  5 secrets of innovation.