“In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”
-Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Today, innovators live in a “Eureka!” culture. They sell the story that ideas appear as visions out of thin air, just waiting for the chosen few to grab them and change the world.

The reality of innovation is nothing like that at all. Pasteur’s quote above, given in an 1854 lecture to the University of Lille, highlights the work required to be ready to capture an innovative idea.

What’s missing from the Eureka Culture is all of the work required before you can be inspired. The research, the experiments, the knowledge to know what is new and what is not. And the intuition to see these new ideas, and where to let them take you.

And that’s what Pasteur is telling us. That only when we have put in the work to understand, that we will be ready to see the visions when they are in front of us.