Inno

And then it happened. From the quarry of my conscience came that coursing voice that grinds my reason to dust and calls me out as a great pretender – “You will never make way for the new, the deviant, the subversive until you are willing to destroy the very things you have spent your career creating.” Surely I wasn’t talking about myself. Didn’t these deans invite me to speak to them because of my history of breakthrough accomplishments? And there it was right in front of me. The hypocrisy of innovators – the perennial outsiders – who inevitably become insiders once they succeed. It took decades of arduous and highly competitive work to climb to the top of my profession. How could I expect these deans to kick the ladder out from under them when I the so called Dean of Innovation wasn’t willing to do the same myself? This was the real price of innovation. It was a flashback to my youth as a Teamster on the loading docks where such a challenge meant throw down or stand down. I chose the latter and disappeared into the elevator.

Jeff DeGraff

 

 

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