The most important thing here is to largely ignore what customers say, and instead watch what they do or track where they spend money.

Think about how much it costs to learn more. Sometimes you want to build confidence by knocking off the easy things.

The curious company studies the anomalies or the unexpected findings. The company that isn't curious ignores them or punishes people who don't do exactly what they set out to do.

Aside from the equivalent of blowing up the lab or letting a pathogen escape, the only failure is spending too long or too much money to learn.

The reality is customers lie - not because they want to want to deceive you, but because they don't do a good job of predicting what they will do in the future.

The sad truth is as difficult as the first mile can be for entrepreneurs, it is doubly tough inside most large companies as innovators can face some significant headwinds.

In my mind, so-called "cultures of innovation" really boil down to one word: curiosity.