1. The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet – William Gibson

2. Strategy is about seeing distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things – Miyamoto Musashi

3. There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the risks and costs of comfortable inaction – John F. Kennedy

4. A mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension – Oliver Wendell Holmes

5. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams – Eleanor Roosevelt

6. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek – Barack Obama 

7. The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment – Anthony Robbins

8. There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns – Edward de Bono

9. You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore – Christopher Columbus

10. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty – Winston Churchill

Have a favorite quote of your own? I love add it to the list. Please write it in the comments area below and leave your name if you want credit.

Top 10 Quotes That Inspire You to Change

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Let’s say you ask ten people the question ‘where do you see true innovation?’.
You will probably get ten different answers, right?

That’s because we all look at innovation differently. The beautiful thing about innovation is that it can be truly inspiring and accelerate change.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the areas of innovation you think about when answering the question…

Where do you see true innovation?

The Geek’s answer: Technology Innovation

Technology is speeding up your daily live exponentially and is changing the way you to do things. Technology becomes smarter, faster and almost better every day. It’s probably no surprise that technology comes to mind when thinking about innovation. It is allowing you to connect to people and is making our earth seem a lot smaller when compared to a 100 years ago.

Take the Kaleido R7 digital frame from IPEVO for example, some great 2009 technology that shows your Flickr stream, RSS content and easily connects you with your loved ones, keeping your lives in sync. Another great example of technology innovation impacting our lives are Pokens. Some call Pokens the future of social networking as they combine your offline and online social activities. You can automatically exchange business cards and your social network profiles simply by giving someone else’s Poken a ‘high-five’ (or high-four actually, if you look closely at the picture).

What inspiring technology innovation have you seen in recent months?

The Coach’s answer: Personal Innovation

Often you hear people talk about innovation on a corporate level. However innovation on a personal level is becoming more and more important. It is very much related to personal and professional development. It’s about enhancing your skills, knowledge and awareness for both personal development and career advancement.

So why should you care about Personal Innovation?

• The earth is your playground
  Technology is turning our planet into a ‘global village’. Companies can choose to work with anyone, anywhere across the world. Take this website for example, it was built by three people located across our planet.
• Necessary to articulate your value
  It is becoming more and more important that you can articulate what value you provide. Someone else with similar skills like yours might be hired at a blink of an eye.  Innovate and differentiate yourself to make sure anyone wants to work with you and it’s clear what value you provide.
• New opportunities
  Personal innovation helps you to adapt to change and compete in a global economy. It helps build your self-awareness and your personal brand. The great news about globalization is that brings new opportunities: you have the whole world as a potential customer! How great is that?

If you are looking for guidance in the area of personal branding and personal innovation, I recommend you checkout Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog.

What are you doing to innovate yourself?

The Business man’s answer: Business Innovation

Innovation in your business is crucial to your future success. If you are a business man or woman, you often have to deal with ‘wicked problems’. Wicked problems are puzzles so persistent, contradictory and slippery that they can seem insoluble.

According to a 2008 survey amongst 1500 CEOs, the top 3 most wicked business problems are:

1. Balancing long-term goals with short-term demands
2. Predicting the returns of innovative concepts
3. Innovating at the increasing speed of change

So how do you crack these wicked problems?

If you are looking for support in this area, I recommend you read the book The Designful Company from Mary Neumeier. It is one of the gems from 2009 and in it, he provides you some great stratgies on how to innovate faster and solve wicked problems. It will help you look differently at your business and what you can do to be successful in the future. The paragraph below provides an inspiring example of the challenges CEOs face today.

Imagine a crazy world where what you learned in business school is either upside down or backwards – where customers control the company, jobs are avenues of self-expression, the barriers to competition are out of your control, strangers design your products, fewer features are better, advertising drives customers away, demographics are beside the point, whatever you sell, you take back, best practices are obsolete at birth; where meaning talks, money walks, and stability is fantasy; where talent trumps obedience, imagination beats knowledge, and empathy trounces logic. If you’ve been paying close enough attention, you don’t have to imagine this Alice-in-Wonderland scenario. You see it forming all around you. The only question is whether you can change your business fast enough to take full advantage of it.

What companies do you see today that are driving their business into this direction?

Where have you seen true innovation lately?

Three Areas Of Innovation That Inspire The Innovator In You

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According to consulting firm McKinsey you can by using small technology innovations. More innovations are becoming available each day and allow you to choose a more eco-friendly way of travel.

What would you use to make your commute smarter?

1. Paddle Assisted Bicycle

Dutch company Gazelle created a bicycle that allows you bike between 50 – 75 km (~40 miles) without exhausting yourself. It supports your cycling efforts by providing electric paddle assistance. The motor that helps you is situated in the front hub of the bike and is powered by a battery located under your luggage rack. Gazelle has won the Bike of the Year 2009 award with their Chamonix Innergy electric bike and for about 2000 EUR you get some very smart technology. For more details, check out their Orange Innergy video on Vimeo.

2. Maglev Train

The Maglev Train is based on a system called magnetic levitation, maglev for short. It propels a vehicle by using the levitation from a very large number of magnets. A great example of a maglev vehicle is the Shanghai-Pudong Maglev Monorail (top speed 501 km/h – 311 mph).

The systems is in operation in many places today and is very efficient when compared to other forms of transportation. The energy cost of traveling 500 – 750 km by maglev is 10 times less when compared to a plain. It is 2 to 3 times less when compared to a regular train. The calculation for this is based on greenhouse gas emission per passenger kilometer. When you get the change to travel with one of these, make sure you do.

3. Electric Dicycle

A dicycle is a vehicle with two parallel wheels. A well known dicycle is the Segway PT, a self-balancing vehicle for one person. It is powered by electricity and allows you to travel much faster than you would normally walk or jog. It is designed to mimic the process of walking and you can move it by leaning into the direction you want to go. It might seem a little too futuristic however, police forces and governments are starting to use it in urban areas. Segway even has designed a special version, the i2 Police.

4. Hybrid Car

In 2000, the first hybrid production car was introduced by Toyota. Today, almost every car maker is working on producing this type of vehicle. Some skeptic claim that hybrid cars are not eco-friendly when looking at their lifetime energy costs (the lifecycle from designing, producing, operating, retiring and disposing). However, 80-90% of the energy is consumed during the operating phase of a car. This is where the hybrid cars score very well. Next, their batteries can be fully recycled making the carbon footprint significantly lower when comparing to a non-hybrid. You can choose from several hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and hopefully soon the hybrid version of Tato Nano, also known as the $2200 production car.

5. Electric Scooter

An electric scooter has some great advantages over a gasoline version. First of all, you drive an almost silent vehicle and it is far more economic to operate (~25 %). Most important, it does not produce any exhaust gasses. Research from the University in Utrecht (Holland) shows that the exhaust gasses from a gasoline powered scooter contain a very large amount of fine particles, even more than a car or truck. These fine particles are linked to health hazards such as heart disease, altered lung function and even lung cancer. As electric scooters do not produce these fine particles, you help minimize the negative effect on air quality. The other great news is that they are just as expensive and look just as pretty as gasoline scooters. So why not get one of these?

6. Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility (aka PUMA)

Although not yet available, what about a two passengers Segway PT? Segway has developed a working prototype (dubbed Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) that demonstrates a dramatically different approach to urban mobility. It is an electric two-seat vehicle with just two wheels, which could allow people to travel around cities more quickly, safely, quietly and cleanly. Is this the future of urban transportation?

7. Personal Air and Land Vehicle (PAL-V)

Do you remember Dr. Emmet Brown in the movie classic Back to the Future? He was the inventor of the flying Delorean and ended the movie with the memorable quote ‘Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads…’

Now, Dutch company PAL-V Europe NV is working on a solution that will make this dream a reality (unfortunately, not the time machine part though <grin>). Their PAL-V ONE is a hybrid of a gyrocopter and a car and according to PAL-V, their vehicle is the ultimate solution to the increasing congestion in our cities. There already is a training facility where you can learn to operate a similar device (the auto-gyro) as you will need a license. The plan is to launch the product in 2011. For more information, check out the PAL-V website.

What would you choose?

Do you make a conscious decision when you commute? Are there eco-friendly alternatives you can use? Feel free to share your thoughts via the comments!

7 Innovations That Make You Commute Smarter

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UPDATE: The contribution posting to the 24 Hours of Innovation just went live, you can check it out here!

The 24 Hours of Innovation event is a non-stop, online marathon of innovation initiatives around the world. Its a virtual event and takes place during a full day and night on May 15-16 from 10.00 am to 10.00 am (CET).

Alexve.com will be part of the action in the blogosphere with a contribution post to “My half time pep talk for 2009″.

The 24 hours are divided in time slots, each one featuring an exciting innovation ranging from an innovation award to creativity sessions, an innovative auction, start-ups, and interviews with global thought leaders. Everyone can follow and join the 24 Hours of Innovation on www.boardofinnovation.com, from where the event will be covered cross-media on blogs, traditional media, twitter, slideshare, ustream, coveritlive, flickr, scribd, vimeo,…

Interested to join?

Visit the 24 Hours of Innovation event page on Linkedin and confirm your interest and participation!

If You Love Innovation, Join the 24 Hours of Innovation

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The future is here, it’s just not widely distributed yet.

Gibson’s words trigger curiosity, they awaken change and inspire the innovator in us. There is a truth in his paradox, just look at our technological advancements in the last 25 years.

Today I am launching my new website, Alexve.com – Innovation Conversations and with it, I like to start the conversation with anyone who can relate to Gibson’s words.

The future of our community we call ‘earth’ is accelerated by our nature to innovate. So why not ride this powerful current of change together?

I’ll be sharing my passion for innovation, technology and personal development here and invite anyone to join me. Alexve.com is about helping each other doing things smarter, sharing creative ideas, cool technology, books and anything that inspires and awakens the innovator in all of us.

Who inspired you to innovate?

Starting the conversation

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