The calendar is chock full of fun facts like this: "The first successful parachute jump from a MOVING airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, Missouri in 1912." Naturally my mind immediately jumped in wonder to first successful parachute jump from a NON MOVING airplane. Has there ever been one?I also learned about skills of a funambulist. What is a funambulist? A tightrope walker! Better issue a warning to my next challenger at Trivial Pursuit!
Finally, I discovered Andrew Jackson was first US President to ride on a tran.
>From there my brain immediately jumped from President on a train to Trains + President = Whistle Stop Tour.
With some supportive help from my favored Search Engine, Google, I quickly learned some fascinating details even above and beyond Whistle Stop Tours. I studied my way into delightful path of innovation.
For example, did you know that first president of United States, George Washington, took an earlier version of a Whistle Stop Tour? He took a "Ship Tour" of Eastern Sea Board while he was in office. Reportedly citizens of New Hampshire had an especially intense celebration for Washington. They reverently compared their President to royalty or deity.
Impressing American citizenry using common modes of transportation is as old as USA. The main difference is how innovatively individuals have used this tool. From here, my brain leap frogged to asking this question: How could anyone leverage something ordinary to create something truly extraordinary?
While Presidents Taft, Wilson, and both Roosevelts used Train Transportation as a campaign method, it was Harry Truman who made Whistle Stop Tour into a franchise.
He took something that his predecessors had tried and used successfully and exponentially improved method right back into re-election! As history has shown us, it was TRUMAN who defeated DEWEY. Not other way around.
Innovators create success.
How do they do it?
1. They listen to passion within their hearts and subsequently take action towards their vision. They are not passively waiting for someone else to do something, they are creating life. They are collaborating with "the flow".
2. They follow sometimes unusual path of strongest computer at their disposal every moment of every day. Their Brain! Did I know that reading some trivia would invite me to write about innovation? Nope! Did I benefit from going with it? Yes! Did You?