I recently heard an exec say to his team, “The products good enough to go to market, and we need to get it to market.”
There are times when people will create a product or service that doesn’t solve a problem. Yet, they are satisfied enough with the product and will push it into the market anyway.
There are times when people will pass something off as “innovative” or “new” when really they just copied it from someone else to give the perception of innovation.
Satisfaction is a trap we all fall into one time or another. If Edison had been satisfied, then he would not have spent day in and day out on his hands and knees changing out filament after filament until he was able to bring his vision to life.
For me, the biggest hurdle is the lack of commitment to something bigger than ourselves. It is up to us to want something different and be willing to explore it; to not be satisfied with what we have; to push our stakeholders (and our shareholders) to not create an environment of hyperbolic discounting, but to create space for a more substantial reward. One that everyone can say, “I was a part of this.” One where people are truly satisfied.