Innovation

Definition: Great ideas you come up with that are mocked by the status quo, you are then persecuted, your idea is stolen and some else takes credit for it.

So here's an example. I have been following the NHL playoffs. I heard about this player who got hit in the mouth with a stick. He lost 9 teeth, and he was quoted as saying "It was good that I only missed one shift". I started looking at the players. They have a lot of missing teeth,

There is of course a very simple solution to prevent the loss of teeth.

Bring that up at an NHL players meeting. First you will be mocked. "Sissy" I hear them yelling . "How do you expect us to fight?" Well that was my next presentation "No more fighting allowed in the NHL" but since you called me sissy, I am forced to drop my gloves and challenge you to a game of Parcheesi.  Next thing you know your not the NHL player safety advisor anymore (Persecution). Then 5 years down the road, someone sitting in that same room the day you showed your power point on no more broken teeth, brings out the new NHL safety guidelines (Face guards mandatory) (Stealing). Of course change happens slowly. At one time, NHL players, including goalies wore no helmets at all. Of course there were some really bad innovative ideas that actually made it into play (see wikipedia under Cooperalls). But I am pretty sure adding full face guards is a good one and will some day be de rigour. Plus the no fighting thing. What am I a friggin psychic? We know these things will eventually happen, we just need time for the status quo agents to adapt to it and for someone to come along and steal the idea.

There you have it. This has actually happened to me more times than I want to remember. Being the first out of the box with an idea, and then trying to change the status quo is almost certainly a path into ruin. Being a status quo jockey or an idea stealer is almost certainly more financially beneficial, you just don't get to sleep at night.