Meaning of True Innovation

One has to appreciate her intellectual candour as it relates to her decision to not point to “hard work” as the reason behind the disparity. For anyone to do so in the year 2018 would be truly pitiful.

Little child: You know mommy how come our friend here makes less than $1,000 a year but you just bought a two thousand dollar ukulele?

Mom: I looked at my husband I said well what are we gonna say? We could tell them this Ayn Randian thing about “you know we work harder so we make and we deserve that stuff”. But, at the end of the day we just said “you know what, life’s unfair and you know we’re lucky enough to be born in a place where we can afford those things and where we can afford good education and good healthcare and some aren’t as lucky”.

Little child: I get it. You know we’re not all born equally, but we still have to treat people equally right?

Mom’s narrative: It’s such a simple concept and I had to think about it. And over the next couple months I (you know) went to a number of tech conferences and what I realised was that the greatest innovations of our time have always happened when we actually treat everyone equally. Innovation is not incremental (right). True innovation, revolutionary innovation, is something where it touches everyone and it can touch everyone and it touches the masses.

Side Note. When an extraordinary businessperson such as Mei Mei Hu, CEO of United Neuroscience, has to point to ‘luck’ as being the reason for the quality of life that the family enjoys, that is shameful. Shameful, not for Mei Mei, but for all humanity. One has to appreciate her intellectual candour as it relates to her decision to not point to “hard work” as the reason behind the disparity. For anyone to do so in the year 2018 would be truly pitiful.