Innovation Quotes of the Week – April 18, 2012

This week begins a series of some of my favorite innovation-related quotes. Please contribute your favorite innovation quotes in the comments and I’ll feature the best submissions in next week’s Innovation Quotes of the Week!

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

– Steve Jobs
– Submitted by Lorna Tyrtania

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

– Will Rogers

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

– Albert Einstein
– Submitted by Carlos Torres

“Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.”

– Jeff Bezos
– Submitted by Mim (Milana Karlo) Bizic

“Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid, open boundaries. Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren’t there before.”

– Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science

“Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again, does.”

– Richard Exley

“We decided to embrace open innovation at Psion to be faster and competitively unpredictable.”

– John Conoley – Psion Teklogix

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

– Albert Einstein

And here a few of the many thoughts that I added to the conversation during the week on Twitter and elsewhere:

• “Invention is driven by ideas while innovation is driven by insights.”
• “Knowledge Management is more about ‘How do I?’ while Innovation is more about ‘Why don’t we?'”
• “The role of HR in the near future will not be just to recruit, develop, and manage staff, but also to build and curate talent pools. The HR profession will have to build new core competences in network orchestration and managing talent – no matter where the talent lives (inside or outside the organization).”

What are some of your favorite innovation quotes?

Add one or more to the comments, listing the quote and who said it, and I’ll share the best of the submissions as future Innovation Quotes of the Week!

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Braden Kelley is a popular innovation speaker, embeds innovation across the organization with innovation training, and builds social business strategies that attract and engage customers, partners, and employees. He is the author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire from John Wiley & Sons and tweets from @innovate.