One of my favorite things is to create something new.  There is a satisfaction in conceiving something in one's mind and then working to bring it to reality.  For me it could be a book, an article on this blog, a business activity, home designs, or a drawing.  I think this is true for most people, as evidenced in the technical, business, medical, scientific, and certainly artistic worlds. 

There is, however, an interesting downside to creating something; namely, pride of authorship.  Many times the creator falls in love with the creation.  When this happens, it becomes difficult to maintain a non-biased perspective and we begin to cling to our creations.  As the saying goes, "Love is blind."

What separates great leaders from all the rest is their ability to wreck the present in pursuit of the future.  This is the phenomenon that can make a leader feel as though he or she is "going against the grain" or "running up hill."  "Everybody out there" can often seem to be against a leader on a mission.  This is because people fall in love with the status quo and don't want to see change.  One speaker joked that the only people that like change is babies.  But there is one other group of people, in addition to babies, that love change: leaders.

As author Maury Klein wrote, "The process of discovery, whether in art, science, business, or any other field, must always swim against the powerful tide of conventional wisdom.  If discovery disrupts, its execution destroys.  The new concept acts as a death ray seeking to destroy all obstacles in its path, indifferent to anything that is incompatible with it.  In virtually every field of endeavor or production, innovation brought with it obsolescence of some kind."  Joseph Schumpeter, who coined the term "creative destruction," said, "This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism."

People and organizations can become encamped on the hill of their last victory, resting on their laurels while proclaiming "this is what got us here."  But for leaders, it is important to learn, as a recent book was entitled, that "what got you here won't get you there."  Greatness comes from having the courage and conviction and vision to attack the status quo, assault the comfortable and the "known," and to turn "best practices" upside down, pursuing a vision that transcends "conventional wisdom."  It takes guts to do this, but real leaders thrive upon it.

And why is assaulting the status quo so difficult?  Why does creative destruction nearly always coincide with pain and anguish?  Because the status quo is comfortable for someone.  The status quo is a power source for someone.  The status quo is a source of pride for those involved in its original creation or in sustaining it.  Never forget: changing the status quo almost always threatens someone else's position.  With few exceptions, leaders will need to learn how to overcome stodgy "experts" and managers in authority positions "above them," or organizational structures and any other beneficiaries of "the way things are."

There is a choice, and sadly, many individuals and organizations take the path of "that's how we've always done it."  As another of my favorite quotes so aptly puts it, "Nothing is so firmly entrenched as the opinions of the experts."

But in the case of creation, the experts are always wrong.  The leader's choice is to assault the status quo, to tear down strongholds and ask the tough questions, slaying sacred cows and striving for the greater good at the expense of the ensconced and privileged few.  It is uncomfortable and it requires courage, staying power, and conviction in the eye of the storm.  But no matter how tough or resistant the status quo is to the change efforts of a leader, it is still better to be exhausted in the attempt of the pursuit of great things, than to rust while clinging to outmoded ideas and practices that guarantee, sooner or later, irrelevance. 

So choose creative destruction in your greatest areas of endeavor, and steer clear of the "safe" path to irrelevance and slow-but-certain ruin through failure to keep up with changing times.

It's your future.

Create it.