One of the things that I’ve seen come up time & time again on the blogs of our local web.entrepreneurs is the sheer frustration at the lack of innovation in the ideas that get funded.
What’s going on here? Is it risk-aversion or just a lack of creativity? Are we South Africans a little short on the firespark of innovation? For a country with such diversity, such a powerful emotion.soaked history, it can’t be because we have a shortage of inspiration.
I believe it’s fear. PLEASE challenge me with strong evidence to the contrary if you believe this wrong. But I see a leadership that shows the backs down in matters of moral courage & calls it diplomacy. An education system that only rewards us when we conform, and give the right answers. Banks that cheerfully charge like a bull & foreclose if you fail in your first round of business. And let’s not go near the productivity.leeching ball & chain Telkom. Innovation just isn’t supported by industry, society or infrastructure, because it’s RISKY & requires change, and potential loss to those who have the current system serving them well. Oh yeah, and in-built is the possibility of looking like an ass. It requires courage to be different.
I would LOVE to see SA starting to shake off the shackles of learned helplessness and shining as one of the brightest hubs of fresh ideas. But it won’t happen if we don’t step a little beyond the tried & tested. One sure-fire way to ignite creative genius is creating a culture that supports the brave. The Free Culture Tour was a small but potent reminder that we need to individually start rocking it hard if we want this country to get the right kind of attention (that we can be proud of please – not the Bullard version – there are times when all PR is good PR is bollocks)
So there a couple of things that you can do today to start rocking with the revolution:
- Support Creative Commons esp. iCommons because the global HQ is here in SA!! If you have a healthy interest in change & a healthy bank account, consider being a benefactor (or get your company to sponsor – hint: sweet branding opportunity)
- Use your inborn genius to think of creative ways around the stuff that doesn’t work efficiently here, create a business out of it or create a rock.solid campaign & join or start a lobbying group to influence policy.making.
- If you have expertise in a particular field and speak another (official) South African language contribute your knowledge to Wikipedia. (Afrikaans up & running already)
- If you’re a creator & your inspiration overflows – consider offering some of your brillance to the world to play with – video, text, art, design, ideas. Rock a Creative Commons license on it to get attribution :: & set it free
PS. if you want to support iCommons I’ve done a couple of buttons you can grab & use as you choose (a linkto: http://icommons.org would be schweeeet & seriously appreciated).
Get creative & take more daring actions this week & use your powers for good!
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- Internet Icons slam Telkom ..your help wanted!
- Bring n’ Braai with some deep genius
- Why Digital Denial is very Dangerous in SA
- iHeritage was a blast
Popularity: 2% [?]
May 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
South African’s do have awesome ideas. It seems though, that fellow South Africans are just s**t scared to actually support any new sort of idea as they might be singled out as ‘different’/'crazy’ for supporting something not mainstream.
. At least with the internet South African’s can actually market their ideas abroad and get full support.
I have seen this time and time again with ideas that I have had. Look at my Million Dollar Project, http://million-dollar-project.blogspot.com, I discuss a lot of things on this site regarding personal development. I specifically did not market my blog to South African’s as I know the comments I would get
May 14th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Max the problem with innovation is partly risk but mostly it’s about South African’s as a whole. I’ve noticed in various things I’ve been involved with in that SA really don’t have the mindset to accept innovation – never mind create it.
Don’t get me wrong I love our community however the community that accepts and drives innovation is so small it doesn’t make financial sense for most capitalist organisations.
So what you find is people copy ideas that have worked in the US, UK, Hong Kong, etc. as there is often concrete evidence that your investment and hard earned cash will show a ROI.
We have little resources to encourage innovation and until we are able to really start funding these ideas properly copying will be the order of merit.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
it is such a complex issue, but I do agree that the bottom line is the guarantee of ROI for investors. Innovation sounds sexy & definitely ranks as the consultant’s snapcard. But in practice it’s a brutal sport that very few can risk playing.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
/me turns the other cheek.
Low blow Justin. You’re being a bullard and generalizing.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I think that this a vicious circle issue to some extent. Innovation is attractive, awesome and possible. But if innovators are shy of the market and concerned with failure then the market itself will pick up on this and not provide the support. Then innovators will retaliate by not innovating locally = vicious circle.
It’s a tough and as max has said, complex debate/issue. I personally feel that if the innovators in this country stick it out, the rewards are going to come very hard and very fast.
I AM ALL FOR THIS COUNTRY… and the people behind the scenes doing there bit! All the above commentators included are doing phenomenal jobs of promoting what SA has to offer!
May 15th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Most people (and this is not restricted to South Africans) don’t use their god-given gifts of creativity and ingenuity. Instead of putting forward their own original ideas, they ride on the coat-tails of others. Instead of playing sport themselves they rejoice at the success or failure of teams like the Sharks & Bulls. In the evenings instead of living their own lives, they come home to watch other people on the idiot-box in their lounge. During the day they slave for other people’s companies. If they’re religious they don’t choose to exercise their brains to decide what feels right to them, instead just copying their parents. Why should the blog world be any different?
May 15th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
> Most people (and this is not restricted to South Africans) don’t use their god-given gifts of creativity and ingenuity.
I think this is largely true but arent we mixing two different things up here? Its one thing to express your own ingenuity and make something original but its quite another thing to make something thats original AND massively popular.
The essay by Max seems to me to be talking about the latter.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Neville’s on the mark – & it’s a human condition not limited to South Africans. The big deal for me is that our leadership governs a great deal of how courageous we can be in expressing our wacky ideas.
Think about a classroom of little ones – if you’re being mocked or humiliated for giving the WRONG answer – pretty soon you’ll learn to keep quiet until you’re fairly sure that you will have the approved tried-and-tested solution.
This is guided by the teacher: a teacher who invites curiosity and courage produces thinkers who can be guided to the best answers, and possibly stumble on some innovative ones enroute.
The former is a very successful model for manufacturing fear-driven mediocrity.
Leaders who allow for innovation have to have courage themselves to deal with the initial chaos that precedes any fresh ideas. There is always a noisy unruly failure period until new order kicks in.
Just like overworked teachers, many leaders would far prefer a controlled and quiet unit than the challenge of a class of creative thinking individuals. The latter Socratic method requires strategy, sophistication and a good deal of self-confidence.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
“Its one thing to express your own ingenuity and make something original but its quite another thing to make something thats original AND massively popular.”
Popularity is overrated. Originality is underrated, there’s something spiritual about originality – it’s holy ground…for what are we uniquely but our own original thoughts and actions.
Max, you’re on the money – leaders who invoke change have to deal with the initial chaos and have the personality to handle the inevitable criticism…if the change can be space led, it’s a bit easier – by first convincing those of your people who are known change-agents.
June 1st, 2008 at 8:38 am
accomplish in many in a hollow acorns wasn’t at is still crown. then eventually by themselves planted by year.