How committed are you to constant and fearless innovation? When someone tells you an idea is farfetched or it cannot be done, do you go out of your way to make it happen? Are you afraid to fail? I have seen far too often people get complacent and stop innovating, stop bringing ideas to the table. Complacency should not exist. People should want more, want better. Why do we stop wanting more? Why does what is OK get left alone? Why do we not want the best? We should want to strive for perfection only settling for greatness.

I have an idea that would change the way we recruit. It is something that I know recruiters and companies could or would not live without. Let’s just say, companies would become about 100x more effective in recruiting. Would you say that’s something you cannot live without? A million thoughts run through my mind a day. I verbally say or propose about 10% of them that I have proved out and I am told it is not going to happen or it can’t happen. It can and it will happen. It’s just a matter of figuring it out. For every “no” that I hear it’s becomes just a little more motivating to find someone who believes and is as passionate as I am about technology and recruiting.

Another example, we launched a social recruiting pilot in July. It is something that is a differentiator. I had to figure out how the make the back end integration work, get others to see my vision. At first people thought I was a little crazy or did not understand why I wanted certain pieces to connect. There were (and still are) a lot of headaches as I explained the connection points I wanted and needed. I have a vendor that is the “heart” of the integration and 2 other vendors had to work within that heart. Only me and for the most part the vendor that is “the heart” (they know about 65% of why) are the only ones that know how everything integrates. It has never been done before. Most programs are a face with no integration and measurement on the back end. It took understanding, figuring it out, taking the time to figure out what the important pieces were and then to solution on how to get everything to click together. I started talking about the “how and why” in January, 6 months later I am 70% integrated of where I want to be. It’s a fully functional program as is, but there are still some things I would like to see happen to optimize it and it will. I could easy say…it works and is streamlined, so why improve or add to it? The reason why is, I want everything I touch to be perfection.

I will say this…anything I do is never good enough for me. I am always thinking, “How can I make it better? How can I make it more effective, save more money, really blow people’s mind on how it integrates or maybe they will never even be able to fully figure it out?”
I encourage everyone who has an idea, who is working on something to keep working and do not listen to “no”. Find someone who will say “yes”. Maybe they will not say yes right away. As long as they will listen and you know what you are talking about, someone will take a chance on you, but you have to keep pushing. Don’t let anyone make you complacent.

I guess there are two points to this blog post….

1. I have things running through my mind and needed an outlet since I have heard “no” a lot lately, but I refuse to give up. Someone that gets the vision will take on my idea 
2. Don’t settle. Constantly innovate. Don’t become complacent and don’t take “no” for an answer.

Now…Go make something happen!