Sometimes
experience means knowing that it can’t be done, and that’s the problem.
Innovation is the charge of the day and the
buzzword that is used loosely in social and political circles. Yet have you
ever wondered how experience impacts innovation? If it’s one thing that
experience lends itself to, is knowing that it can’t be done, probably because
you have tried it before. Let’s take a look at how that would of impacted
history.
One
of the most amazing accomplishments of man is the ability to fly. No matter how
you think of it, it’s pretty amazing that an iron vehicle that weighs tons
manages to not only take flight but do so loaded with cargo and passengers. Can
you imagine how bizarre the individuals who purported human flight seemed
hundreds of years ago? Just picture some guy working in a blacksmith shop or as
a ranch hand tending horses saying that one day, man’s mode of transportation
for long distances would be air travel. They would have thought him/her insane
and may have even accused him of witchcraft. They would summarily convince him
or at least try to convince him that it could never happen and thus it would
never happen. Imagine if the Wright Brothers ascribed to the same philosophy? We
would of still been riding bicycles!
Anything
truly amazing that man has accomplished has been done void of the benefit of
experience. These individuals had the audacity to believe the impossible could
be accomplished. We grew up watching the
Jetsons, in awe of people talking through their watches, using videophones and eating
food that was instantly prepared. We are living in that world now with
cellphones, videoconferencing and microwaves!
True
innovators are always pioneers in their field. They are the ones that lead
commerce and society to new heights of accomplishments. They always carry
labels like, crazy, stupid, eccentric or just plain loco, but every once in a
while one of them realizes their hair-brained scheme and our way of life is
transformed.
Now
more than ever the benefit of experience is being negated, simply by the speed
of technology. Everything that we implement to make things move faster
incrementally makes everything else we do faster. It also multiplies our
mistakes that much faster. Think about how long people listened to the
conventional phonograph or record player as we know it. In the last 20 years
alone those records, cassette tapes, reel to reels, VCR’s, laser discs, floppy
discs and CD’s have all gone obsolete. The technology you adapt to today will
be obsolete in less than two years.
Coming
back from a 30,000 ft. view, how does this translate to the workplace? This is
the perfect excuse to give inexperience a try. As we move further into the
summer, I am pleased to see many bright young graduates returning to our shores
from the Universities on the mainland and UVI looking for opportunity. It’s
time for us as a community to give them one! The one thing that we are positive
of is that they haven’t done it before and they don’t know that it can’t be
done.
The
future success of the Virgin Islands is forever married to the education we
provide and the ability to attract and retain talent. This is the talent that
we will need to man our workforce and power our economy. While tourism will
probably always occupy a large part of our economy, we have an opportunity to
provide services to the world via the Internet. Adaptation to using
videoconferencing through Skype, networking through Facebook/Linked in or
accessing information through Google, these are the masters of the modern day
economic marketplace.
Not
knowing you can fail, strongly increases your chance of success. Young people
who still have the light in their eyes and believe that they can save the world
and more specifically the Virgin Islands, just might. And even if they shoot
for the stars and hit the clouds, they are bound to be a valuable asset to your
organization. Remember, sometimes experience means knowing it can’t be
done…..and that’s a problem.
