I came to a bit of a revelation this morning, and I want to test it out here to see what you think. Here it is:

The core of innovation is dissatisfaction.

I know—sounds pretty negative, right? And now you’re thinking, “Gee, Bill, you’re really a ‘glass half empty’ guy, aren’t you?”

Well, I’m not. But I stand by my statement, and here’s why.

It’s because the innovator is constantly looking for problems to solve. The innovator is proactively seeking out the things that bug the rest of us. But while we simply complain about them (and then continue to put up with them), the innovator asks the question, “How can this be better?”

In other words, where we see dissatisfaction, the innovator sees opportunity.

By the way, you can be that innovator. Here’s one way to start.

Ask yourself (and your team), “Where are our customers dissatisfied? And how can we make it better?”

Maybe there’s something about doing business with you, or with your industry, that they find dissatisfying. Or maybe it’s something about doing business with their customers. The point is, there’s something dissatisfying in their world (and if there isn’t, please tell me what business they’re in so I can make a quick career shift).

Find it, and make it better, and you’ll have a customer for life. And more than that, you’ll be an innovator.

Because the core of innovation is dissatisfaction.