Innovate or Die!: A Personal Perspective on the Art of Innovation

by Jack V. Matson

Starting up a business involves creatively coming up with many ideas, sorting out the most promising ones, testing prototypes, and launching the enterprise. The process involves an incredible number of failures. The book sets out a philosophy of intelligent fast failure (IFF) in which each failed attempt provides knowledge that can quickly result in new ideas, and so on. Each failure is a knowledge building block in fully understanding how to become successful. The IFF model is applied to a number of case studies so that the reader is constantly introduced to how successful businesses are launched and how businesses can ultimately fail. The IFF philosophy can be applied more broadly to all forms of human endeavor that require new, innovative, and radical solutions.

Genres: Business, Management, Self Help

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

Reviews

[Miguel Panão · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different take on innovation

This book has a different take on innovation through its most common ground, failing. The fact we fail doesn’t mean we’re a failure. It means we’re innovators, of matter how long it takes to get it. This is some of what you can learn with this book.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me visualize and understand what innovation looks like. It does a great job of spelling out how to encourage innovation and gives some good recipes for unlocking your creativity. I really liked the "Fast Failure" concepts and the idea that you should focus on intelligently setting up a few ideas to test out in parallel and weeding out the weaker innovations quicker. I have a tendency not to want to give up on a project or idea after spending a lot of time on it. I think with the information I've gleamed from this book that I will be better at doing more and not getting depressed if some ideas fail. Also I need to leave my comfort zone more.

The Book is easy to read with lots of short chapters which I liked.

[Stanley Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book by Professor Jack Matson.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt a bit 'dialed in' at times, but I found some very inspiring bits and pieces in it.

[Otávio Augusto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had the opportunity of experimenting while reading this book and oh wow. All it really takes is a small leap of faith, even smaller than believing you will drive around town safely.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been the most highlighted book I own. It wasn't quite a 4 star, but it's better than a 3 star. Worthwhile read.