Businesses fail when they over-invest in what is at the expense of what could be.

All too often, a successful new business model becomes the business model for companies not creative enough to invent their own.

As human beings, we are the only organisms that create for the sheer stupid pleasure of doing so. Whether it's laying out a garden, composing a new tune on the piano, writing a bit of poetry, manipulating a digital photo, redecorating a room, or inventing a new chili recipe - we are happiest when we are creating.

Most of us understand that innovation is enormously important. It's the only insurance against irrelevance. It's the only guarantee of long-term customer loyalty. It's the only strategy for out-performing a dismal economy.

Innovation is the fuel for growth. When a company runs out of innovation, it runs out of growth.

Organizational structures of today demand too much from a few, and not much at all from everyone else.

Like a child star whose fame fades as the years advance, many once-innovative companies become less so as they mature.