Innovation vs hibernation...

Two interrelated pieces underlining the importance of innovating not hibernating:

• Looking for a reason to hide, Seth G
  
  I've seen it before and I'm sure I'll see it again.
  Whenever a business cycle starts to falter, the media start wringing their hands. Then big businesses do, freelancers, entrepreneurs and soon everyone is keening.
  People and organizations that have no real financial stress start to pull back, "because it's prudent." Now is not the time, they say. They cut budgets and put off investments. It's almost as if everyone is just waiting for an excuse to do less.
  In fact, they are.
  
  Growth is frightening for a lot of people. It brings change and the opportunity for public failure. So if the astrological signs aren't right or the water is too cold or we've got a twinge in our elbow, we find an excuse. We decide to do it later, or not at all.
  What a shame. What a waste.
  
  Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year's Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.
  But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.
  
  If I wasn't already running my own business, today is the day I'd start one.
  
• From this week's Economist
  
  Seven years ago, as America slipped into recession in the wake of terrorist attacks and the collapse of the dotcom bubble, Apple launched its iPod music-player. Many observers thought the company had gone mad. Apple was launching an expensive new product (the first iPod cost $399) in the depths of the worst downturn the technology industry had ever seen. It was venturing outside its familiar market, for personal computers, into the fiercely competitive field of consumer electronics. And it was taking on Sony, the giant of the industry. The iPod’s name, sceptics declared, stood for “idiots price our devices”.