For the jingoistic sign carrier, the impatient shareholder, the late-night goofball and the nascent entrepreneur in search of cash…

We’ve heard your rants, your threats, your plans. We understand that you are in a hurry for a simple, dramatic, obvious solution to whatever problem you face.

“And then what happens?”

“Has this ever worked before?”

“How is this different (or the same) from those times?”

“What will you do when it doesn’t work the way you hoped?”

Innovation is essential, but innovation isn’t lazy. It takes insight and patience and experience to bring a new solution to an old problem.

Impatience is not a strategy. @ThisIsSethsBlog (Click to Tweet!)

Experience isn’t free, but it’s valuable.

And history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.

*Originally published on sethgodin.typepad.com.

Seth Godin has written eighteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership, and, most of all, changing everything.

Image courtesy of Stephanie.