Study Something New

As a small business owner, obviously with anybody, you have to really be constantly learning and I have a very different point of view than some people. One of my beliefs is that expertise is the enemy of innovation. What happens is that we tend to, if we’re in the restaurant business for example, we’re going to read books and magazines on the restaurant industry and we’ll go to conferences on restaurants and things like that.

The problem then is that you’re getting a very myopic view of what’s possible because you’re only seeing the way things have been done in the past by people in your industry. My perspective is that you want to find things which are tangentially related to what you’re doing and then try to learn from there.

For example, I don’t go to innovation conferences. What I do is read books like the book I’m reading right now on magic and the way the brain operates. I like books on neuroscience, psychology, and sports performance. These, to me, actually give me deeper and greater insights to innovating innovation rather than reading books on innovation which just means I’m replicating what other people are doing.

It’s useful to study what other people are doing in your space, but if you want to differentiate yourself, I think it’s best to look from different angles. That’s why I love coming to The Art Of events because there’s so many different perspectives, so many different dots to connect. It’s not like a bunch of people thinking exactly the same way. You’ve got a broad range of people in the audience and you have a broad range of speakers talking about a broad range of topics. That to me is the key to innovation.