Mistakes That Startups Make #1: Timing

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

Timing is everything. Pull a cake out of the oven too early or too late and it is normally garbage. Mess up your timing crossing a street and wham, no more worries.

Before you even get started on your startup, you should make a list of the things that you are going to need to accomplish in order to succeed. Then determine when you need to start doing each one of the things on the list in order to reach a final goal of a successful company. Here are a few of the things that should be on your list (I will discuss most of these in other posts):

1) Market Definition

2) Product Development

3) Identifying Partners

4) Finding Funding (staging)

5) Locking in intellectual property (patents)

6) Finding Advisors

7) Creating a business plan

Depending on your product and market there could be a lot more items on the list. Also, the timing and importance of each will vary as well for each of you. The important thing is to never make the assumption: “Step 1 will make Step 2 EASY”. In otherwords “If we finish a beta product, getting funding will be easy” or “I can easily talk to potential partners once I lock in the IP and get an NDA” or “My business plan shows specific roadmap stages and everyone expects to see that roadmap being met easily”. I have seen startups (some funded with $50M) that spent years and all their money developing a phenomenal product and now have no money to market it and desperately need another angel or VC. In some cases, the market had completely moved on during the long development period. Guess what: It is often too late at that point.

Be proactive earlier in your timeline about solving each of the items on your list. Get partners as soon as possible. Lock in advisors that are targeted to your product and market. MAKE THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU WILL NEVER GET MORE FUNDING. Use your money wisely for ALL of the items on your list because some of the non-funding items WILL SOLVE YOUR FUNDING PROBLEMS!

Don’t do oooooonnnnneeeee ttthhhiiiinnnngggg aaaatttt aaaaa ttttiiimmmeee (dragged out for effect)….you will likely fail. 

Nothing about a startup is ever EASY. Don’t fall into the EASY trap…prepare and execute on a schedule.

Timing is everything.

=================================

This is #1 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make. Numbering is random.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #2: Referrals

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

“Referrals” is one of those topics that normally ticks me off pretty bad. People constantly email me and ask me to send them a list of contact names so that they can get funding or find a partner or get a customer. Sometimes the startup tries to minimize it by asking for ‘just a few’.

I know a lot of people. Those people know a lot more people. My personal Rolodex has over 6K names in it of people that I have dealt with in some way or I have met over my career. I know a large number of executives at very big companies. These are great people to know. And most of the time they will take my call or respond to my email quickly. They are contacts, acquaintances, business associates, friends, etc. No matter what you want to call them they are professionals and I treat them like professionals and I never waste their time.

Why will my contacts take my call? Because they know I am calling because I have something I have reviewed and that I think they will want to know about. I never contact them unless I am ready to lay out the startup or company in under 3 minutes. I can define exactly how they will benefit and I have materials prepped and ready to forward to them or their team to back up what I say.

So, if I have this great Rolodex of names, why aren’t I willing to just share a few with someone I know nothing about? Hmmm. Seems kind of obvious to me and you wouldn’t think this would be an issue.

Here are a couple of reasons I don’t share:

1) Startups often contact me and can’t tell me what they want. They tell me they need help but can’t specify what help other than “I need money”. If they can’t tell me what they need do I think they can tell my contact? No.

2) Startups contact me and can’t articulate what their company does in a paragraph or two or tell it to me in under 3 minutes. And they can’t tell me how they would be valuable to a potential partner. And they can’t lay out their plan for making their potential partner money. So, do I think they can sell themselves to my contact? No.

3) Startups contact me about an ‘idea’ they have. They can’t tell me how they plan to protect it. They can’t tell me how they would eliminate competition. They can’t tell me who their potential competitors are. Do I think they will be able to answer the same questions when my contact asks? No.

4) Startups contact me and within the first email ask me to send them some contacts. They genuinely seem to look at me like a phone book. Do I think they respect my contacts, my reputation, my experience and my time? No.

Like I said, this topic ticks me off.

Why don’t I share some contacts with strangers I am not in business with? Because if I did I wouldn’t have any contacts to share.

========

This is #2 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #3: Expectations

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

This is about expectations. Expectations of funding. Many startups seem to function in their early stages under the ‘if you build it, they will come’ theory of future funding.

Many startups get angel and VC funding in the U.S. In 2011 VCs funded a little over 3,000 startups. Angels is more of a guess, but the number is probably somewhere around 20,000. That’s just my gut feeling. Many people will say there are more funded…a lot more! But most of these people want you to believe fervently in the ‘if you build it…’ theory. They want you to pay them to find you funding with the expectation that it will be easy and quick.

Some startups do get money quickly. This is very, very rare. Getting any kind of funding outside of friends and family can and normally does take years. And those are years where you are actively and continuously presenting to VCs and angels. Not trying to ‘find’ VCs and angels. Active presentation of your startup to angels and VCs. You can easily go through a dozen meetings over a year with a single VC just to end up being rejected. Angels can be just as exhausting and expensive. Most angels and VCs want to see you face to face. They want to judge your venture and YOU. If they don’t you should take this as a sign of problems.

Some angels aren’t really angels. They are people that are in collusion with angel agents and share the agents fee while leading you on. Don’t get me wrong, there are some really good angel agents or brokers. But, there are also a lot of really bad ones. Watch for the sharks.

A lot of angels now belong to angel groups. They talk among themselves. If one rejects you then that rejection can eliminate the entire group of angel investors. And then you are hunting again for the next group of angels.

On average, it is extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming to get angel or VC funding. And that is if you are ACTIVELY PRESENTING. Anyone who tells you differently is not playing straight.

Most angels and VCs are highly protective of their contact information. In many ways they are like book publishers. If they make themselves too accessible they receive thousands (tens of thousands) of submissions each year. Far too many to evaluate. They have trusted advisors that bring ventures to them. These advisors are connected to executives in leading companies and those executives are watching for startups that have potential.

Startups need a few of things to succeed when looking for funding:

1) Money
2) Advisors that might be connected
3) Brokers that can position the startup

Notice that ‘money’ was the first need on the list. Plan on flying and presenting. Plan on paying a broker unless you are very well connected. Plan on presenting at VC conferences and competing in local and national competitons.

You need to understand that you probably have a million competitors all running after the same money you are. The most visible are the ones that will get the funding.

If you have no budget for raising money, then you have a very steep mountain to climb. A good estimate is a minimum of $50K for fund raising. If you are going after $Ms then you will need more.

Many startups have no fund raising budget. They spend everything chasing the ‘if you build it’ theory. Don’t do it. Be actively presenting continuously while you are building.

========

This is #3 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #4: NDAs

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

There are few people that will tell you more firmly than I will that you need to protect your intellectual property. I have twenty five patents (a stack of paper 3 feet tall). And I have reviewed a great many companies for merger/acquisition and almost always my first question is “Do you have defensible intellectual property”?

Before you talk to anyone, if you think you have a unique concept, idea or product then file a provisional patent application. It currently costs only $125/each and there are services that will help you file that are available for under $200 for all the applications you want to file.

That means for $700 you can file four provisional applications. Yes it takes some work, but any investor will ask to see how you are protecting your IP. So, don’t say you can’t afford it. It is the best $700 you will spend. It puts a stake in the ground of when you identified your IP.  An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) won’t protect your IP like a patent will.

Once you have locked in your IP, then you can start worrying about talking to other people. But, you have to do it right. VCs and angels will RARELY sign an NDA. But, they also don’t want to know the detailed mathematics or algorithms or processes or whatever that makes your product unique. They don’t need the secret sauce early on. They want to know only the high level values in the beginning.  Save the secret sauce for the latter stages of due diligence.

About 1 out of every 40 startups will send me an email and say ‘I have a great startup. Sign the attached NDA and we can discuss’.  No information on what the startup is, nothing at all. I always ask for some high level info, but sometimes they will refuse without the NDA. They are asking me to read and sign a contract without even knowing if the startup is within my areas of expertise and interest. Don’t want to tell me your secret sauce? No problem. But at least tell me if it has something to do with cloud computing or clothing design or gold mines or perpetual motion machines (yes I get those).

Some people will tell you “No one wants to steal your idea anyway”. I disagree. Remember: Lock in your IP! Don’t reveal your secret sauce unless there is a very good reason! An NDA will not protect your secret sauce!

You should create a brief description of your startup that describes why your startup is valuable without revealing your secret sauce. You also need a 3 minute description that you can tell anyone.

Let’s look at an example: You are at a trade show. Your startup has some amazing new technology for mobile carriers. You happen to catch the CTO of Verizon Wireless after he speaks at the event. Are you going to ask him to sign an NDA? You better have that 3 minute summary ready to knock his socks off or you will lose the opportunity of a lifetime.

If your startup is ‘better than sliced bread’ then be prepared to say “My product can slice bread 40% cheaper and 50% faster reducing the cost of bread production by 10% overall”. You don’t have to say “We utilize a proprietary technology involving iridium lasers and twelve bonded mirrors as reflectors to slice bread where the mirrors are at increasing angles of 3 degrees above the horizontal…blah…blah…blah”.

Discuss your value, not your secret sauce. And then people will sign NDAs and you won’t lose sleep.

========

This is #4 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #5: Vision

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

A lot of us have come up with new ideas. The more we think about our new idea the more we expand the idea and define how the idea will be developed, deployed and sold. Eventually, we have a fully fleshed out vision of the future for our idea.

Now that we have a vision of our idea’s future implementation, we want to make it real. And that is when many startups begin to fail.

Presenting a complete vision of a product to investors with no intermediate marketing stages often will result in little or no funding. The risk of failure is too high. And the longer the time period is needed to bring the vision to market the more likely it is that the market will shift and the product will no longer deliver the same dreamed about market impact and resulting revenues.

Developing a complete vision with no intermediate marketing stages makes the assumption that the startup’s founders have a complete understanding of the potential consumer’s needs and wants as well as the optimal packaging and presentation of the product. Many startups deliver complete vision products to market only to discover they have made invalid assumptions or that new competitor’s products have shifted the consumer’s expectations.

I know of startups that have actually turned down funding because the founders of the startup felt that the investors did not ‘fully understand the vision and might limit the vision’. After years of searching, these startups have yet to receive funding under the terms of the ‘vision’. Many of these startups will probably never get funding and their vision will never be realized.

The same thing happens to many (most? ALL!) established companies. Millions of dollars and years of development time are spent on products that when brought to market are a complete failure. If the product had been staged more appropriately the company would probably have identified the issues early on and been able to shift the development path to a more appropriate vision.

A complete vision can sometimes lead to complete blindness.

========

This is #5 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #7: Dreams

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

A young developer has a new idea and he has dreams of phenomenal success. Through a family member he manages to get time for a discussion with a very wealthy investor. The developer comes in and immediately proclaims “I am here to make you rich!” The investor replies “I am already rich. You are here for me to make you rich. Come back in the future when you have control of your dreams and you can see the difference.”

We all have dreams of creating the next Google. Or Facebook. Unfortunately, our dreams can get in the way of reality and our excitement can get us booted out into the street.

I have received proposals in the last week from four different startups (that do not currently exist) that each of the founders projected would generate over $1B in revenues per year within three years. I got one proposal where the founder said the full market potential would total one TRILLION dollars within four years. Now, please remember, THESE DO NOT CURRENTLY EXIST! The founders each felt they would become a dominant player in the market within the first year and that revenues would grow over 1000% each year. The largest competitors in each of the markets were very large, multinational corporations with massive infrastructures and have been dominant for a minimum of 20 years each.

In each case I told them to reduce their dreams to the ‘possible potential’ instead of the ‘lottery winning potential’. They didn’t understand why I couldn’t see their dreams.

Was I wrong? Possibly. But, every meeting I have ever been in where a startup stated potential growth at these rates has ended in disaster. The founder immediately loses all credibility. It doesn’t matter if their dream is absolutely accurate. No one standing on the outside of that dream can visualize such extremes. How do you deploy the needed infrastructure? How do you hire and train sufficient staff? How do you overcome being destroyed by the existing dominant market competitors?

We all want to win the lottery. The odds are staggeringly small. Keep your dream estimates of success to yourself.

If you have a truly innovative, disruptive idea, you won’t need huge dream numbers to sell the idea to investors, partners and advisors. State possible numbers and say ‘we feel the potential is actually greater but feel complete confidence in these numbers’.

Once investors are on the inside of your dream, maybe then they can see the lottery winning potentials.

========

This is #7 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for several companies that I can work with on their road to success as a virtual C-level officer, board member, advisor or other relationship.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #8: Physics

I have talkedto thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

I really love a great magic show.You know…they levitate a 3000 pound truck. Or make an elephant disappear. Or they do something very simple like pulling a half dozen large ducks out of nowhere. Wow! (I have seen each of these tricks over the years.)

But, even though I am amazed by the skills of the magician and their seemingly impossible abilities, I still know that what I am seeing is an illusion. The laws of physics still apply.

I get contacted by a surprising number of startups that openly claim capabilities or potentials that blatantly violate the laws of physics (or mathematics). Of course they never talk about physics. They just yank their squirrel (oops, rabbit) out of their hat and wait patiently for the ‘wow’ to follow. Ok, so…wow.

The obvious ones are the perpetual motion machines. Today they call their inventions things like “limitless energy generation platforms”. I get a lot of these. I guess it follows the rule ‘try selling to one thousand people and if one invests then you are making money’. Amazing that there is still a ‘sucker born every minute’. Violating physical laws is still a problem even with modern wrappers.

Then there are the less obvious ones. Well, to some people. Virtually all companies that died after the Internet bubble burst were violating the laws of physics (or mathematics). Essentially it was “a large number of customers will generate a profit even if the cost of customer acquisition exceeds all potential sales revenues”. The truly amazing part was that most investors bought into this violation of simple mathematics. Kind of like Groupon today.

But, anyway. The point of all this is that many startups violate the laws of physics (or mathematics) unintentionally. Unlike the ones above who do it on purpose. These unintentional violators quickly flesh out their business plans and define staggering growth and market opportunities. In many cases it is physically impossible to deploy all the equipment and software and do all the hiring required to support the projected growth. Plus the assumption is that major competitors will be asleep and will stay asleep. Kind of like Groupon again…hmm.

Many VCs and other investors will catch your violations. And in many cases they will then walk away. The assumption becomes that there are other undiscovered violations. The resulting uncertainty makes the whole thing start to look and sound bad.

Ignorance is no excuse. Don’t get caught violating the laws of physics (or mathematics) intentionally or unintentionally. It could push your startup into a black hole. And only a few startups survive that!

========

This is #8 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #9: RADAR

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

The British were the first to fully exploit radar as a defence against airplane attack. And it had a huge impact on the outcome of World War II.

I am not a pilot. I have often dreamed of flying a fighter jet. Maybe someday I will get to fulfill that dream.

In all of the best modern warfare movies that include fighter jets, you will likely hear the line “They have locked on to us with their targeting radar!” Or you will hear the warble of a radar detection alarm. Man oh man. If I was a pilot and anything like that happened to me, I would have a really hard time not ‘punching it’ straight up and away. That radar warble would probably mean I am close to dying.

Startups don’t seem to understand that the existing competitors in the startup’s markets have radar. Unfortunately, there is no warbling radar detector to warn the startup. And once exposed to the radar, startups normally don’t stand a chance.

Initially, it’s not all that dangerous for the startup. Large companies are very bad at monitoring their radar. A startup can go undetected for quite a while. The period where they are not detected is generally the early growth stages of the startup when there are few visible signs of the existence of the startup. Some large companies never recognize the startup’s blip on their radar and the startup gains a leadership role in the market. This is pretty rare.

Once many startups get their product in place and get some funding, the first thing they do is challenge the existing big boys in the market. And do you know who monitors the radar systems at the large competitors? It’s the sales team. The minute that a customer or potential customer brings up the capabilities of this mysterious startup’s products, then all defensive forces within the big boy will begin to be focused on the startup. Those defenses will quickly shift to offensive attacks and result in direct confrontations with the startup through price cuts, discounts, lawsuits, etc. Nothing triggers the radar watcher’s deadly attacks faster than a potential impact on sales commissions! These aggressive attacks hit at the worst possible moment for the startup – when they have limited cash on hand, zero cash flow and desperately need to get a foundational sale.

I was contacted by a startup several weeks ago. They had a truly disruptive technology that they had patented in multiple countries. I saw huge potential for the technology in multiple markets. Then the startup’s CEO told me that they intended to compete head on against three of the largest technology companies in the world. I told them to fly under the radar. I told them they should target their technology into niche markets that were unserved or underserved by the giants. They didn’t get it. They told me I didn’t understand. We went our separate ways. I figure the odds of them winning are about as close to zero as you can get.

Don’t make a sales guy at one of your big competitors fear that he might lose the commission that he needs to pay his mortgage.  As a startup, you will likely die in the dog fight that ensues. Fly under the radar.

I will be talking more about flying under the radar, targeting markets, etc. in other “Mistakes” posts.

========

This is #9 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Mistakes That Startups Make #10: Elevator Speech

I have talked to thousands of startups over the last 15 years. And most of them make mistakes that dramatically limit their overall potential for success. An unbelievably small fraction of startups succeed and there are good reasons why.

========

Thirty seconds. Count it out to yourself. You will find yourself in professional situations where that is all the time you have. It’s called an ‘elevator speech’ because you might find yourself on an elevator with the key person who can deliver your opportunity of a lifetime. There is no room for ‘uh’, ‘well’, ‘right’ or any other words that have no value and reflect uncertainty to the listener.

Write up two elevator speeches. One is the business value speech. The other is the technical value speech. Both speeches can be used in face-to-face encounters as well as introductory emails, texts, introductory slides, etc. These should be the foundational definition of your startup! Not an afterthought.

Elevator speeches are more important than a business plan. They are more important than a one pager. They are more important than almost anything you will do relative to your startup.

Why? Because your elevator speech is your door opener and seed planter. If you have a one hour meeting with a key potential investor, you should start the meeting with your business elevator speech. Here is an example:

“Our new HydroFlash product is targeted at the water purification market which Gartner has defined as $13B in 2012 with over 70% currently untapped by any solution. We can deliver our product to the customer within 5 days of order and scale up and down to meet the needs of communities ranging from villages to large cities. We have defensible IP that potential competitors in the market cannot work around so they will have to license our technologies. We have partnered with the largest manufacturers. We can return a 10 fold return on investment in two years with multiple exit options in five years.” This should take you 30-45 seconds to say.

Notice all the seeds I have planted with the listener:

- Water purification market is well known as a growth market

- $13B market – largely untapped

- Third party confirmation of market

- Fast product delivery – minimal inventory requirements

- Multiple markets – small to large communities

- Defensible IP

- Licensing opportunities for recurring revenues from competitors

- Established partner base

- 10 fold return on investment in 2 years

- Multiple exit options

For the rest of the presentation my listeners would be asking questions about my additional presentation materials but most questions will originate from and be based on my intro elevator speech.

If there are technologists in the room and they ask a more technical question, then you pop out with your technical elevator speech and defer other technical questions until another meeting after signing of a mutual NDA.

I will be talking more about elevator speeches, business and technical values, etc. in other “Mistakes” posts.

========

This is #10 in a series of 50 mistakes that startups make.

I am looking for a company that I can work with on their road to success.

I am the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and the Chief Product Architect at Verizon. I hold 25 granted patents that are referenced by over 400 other patents. I have started five companies and driven them to success. I have two startups in stealth. I was on the M&A committees at HP and Verizon.

Drop me a note or connect with me: wdcroslin@gmail.com

Innovate the Future: What Color Is Your Innovation Box?

Having trouble creating new, innovative products? Does an impenetrable barrier seem to prevent your company from achieving (or regaining) a position of market dominance? Surprisingly, you’re probably at fault. You’ve created a “box” that limits your company, and most of your attempts to start innovating only make this box stronger and more limiting. This article explains the most common “box” that most companies create: their best and brightest employees.

Black-and-Blue Thumb

Pain is one of the biggest inhibitors of new innovations. Pain comes in many forms.

I grew up working on construction crews, so I’ve likely driven a million nails of varying sizes, using hammers large and small. I can tell you that genuine skill is required to drive in a large nail—let’s pick a 16-penny nail, about 3.5 inches long—with three swings of a hammer, especially if you don’t want to “track” the wood with dents from the hammer blows. A properly driven nail just seems toshoot into the wood with those three strokes.

Believe it or not, I can clearly remember the first time I tried to drive nails like a professional carpenter. I watched the pros around me driving nails with easy, powerful, directed swings. The sheer power behind each swing was amazing to behold. I was terrified of hitting my thumb with that much power and watching my thumbnail fly off into the distance. (I have done this, and it’s not fun to recall.)

Let’s assume that you’ve never swung a hammer or driven a nail. You would very likely have the same terror as I did. Which tool would you rather use to drive that first nail?

• Tool A. A large metal block with a curved strap that wraps around your swinging hand.
• Tool B. A metal block with a small head attached on the end of a foot-long stick (a hammer).

At first, you probably would like using tool A. It would be much less likely to give you membership in the “black-and-blue thumb club.” No way are you going to miss the nail on the first swing using tool A.

But, after a while, the laughter of the other carpenters and the screams of your boss about productivity would push you to try tool B, the infamous thumb-bashing hammer. And you would either get good at using the hammer, or retire from the carpentry field.

The likelihood of improving the proverbial hammer is very small. And if you were an inventor trying to improve it, every smashed thumb would push you further toward the current design. If you had a lot of experience as a carpenter, you probably wouldn’t try to improve the hammer in the first place. There would just be too many (literally) painful memories.

The point is that invention and innovation can be very difficult. They can be made even harder if the box that defines how we invent and innovate is a box largely constructed from an attempt to avoid pain.

===> Read the rest of What Color is Your Innovation Box?.

David Croslin is the author of Innovate the Future, recently published by Prentice-Hall. Croslin is the former Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and Chief Product Architect at Verizon Business. Executive teams are praising Croslin’s innovation process at leading telecom companies including ATT, Alcatel-Lucent and Rogers Communications.

Read a free sample from the book, Chapter 3, “The Innovation Life Cycle“.

Croslin’s LinkedIn group “Innovate the Future” connects more than four thousand leading innovators in eighty-five countries.