The 'Unseen'

In the great Indian epic of Mahabharata, the great archer   Arjuna is asked by his teacher on what he sees. Unlike his peers who see a number of things such as trees, objects, people, sky etc, Arjuna replies that he sees only the eye of the bird. Arjuna then shoots the bird to kill with one arrow.

Cut to the world of innovation. When everyone sees noise,chaos, lots and lots of things, if you are able to see far into the future on how your idea will change the world, the impact it can potentially make and the consequential success it can make, its the first step to make the kill.

When everyone is finding reasons why the idea won't work, why its not a 'good'idea by conventional wisdom, how its not the way 'things are done by us', nothing matters more than the clarity of thought. Are you able to see through the mess/clutter/chaos to a better world? Are you able to mute the noise, ignore the distractions, think 10 steps ahead ?

How did Jeff Bezos see the world of single click purchase when people were afraid to use credit cards online? How did Muhammad Yunus see the group thinking benefits of micro finance when people only thought of individual lending? How did the Blockchain founder ('X') see disintermediation when everyone saw databases? How did Travis Kalanick see ride hailing when everyone saw maps?

Popular opinions serve the common denominator not the disruptions that change the world. People are comfortable with 'Status Quo' as its less risky and more predictable. The clarity of vision and thought and the ability to see the 'unseen' before everyone else is worth going against the tide!