Too many tacticians, and too few artists.  Too many managers, lawyers and consultants, and too few actual innovators.  It seems like every time I’m at these ‘innovation’ conferences, everyone that I meet, every panel I hear, has all kinds of advice on how to build and run a biotech start up, or has a new book coming out on Amazon on tips for start ups managing the FDA regulatory process, or building innovation at a company, or how to approach fundraising.  So much information on tactics.

I’m not saying that there isn’t value in learning tactics.  Tactics can give you a starting place.  Tactics can give you a helpful framework, and a lay of the land.  But that’s not innovation. And, that’s not enough.  And, frankly, just learning how the rules work is now assumed. 

But. I wonder how many of these people, with so much advice and commentary for would be biotech entrepreneurs, who profess to champion innovation, how many of them have actually done it?  How many have actually started a biopharma or med device company?  Not consulted on it, or angel invested in a med device start up once, or was deeply involved in the regulatory side of a phase 3 or post NDA product in a division at Amgen, or written insightful legal articles with commentary on the new rules, but actually did it?  Actually did it themselves? How many of them have created anything truly innovative? Or for that matter, how many have actually created anything at all? I’ve met very very very few of those people.  Those are a lot more rare.   

Why? Because moving past the tactics, actually acting on a plan, pulling the trigger, and creating something new that hasn’t been done before, in a way that hasn’t been done before, without a clear to follow roadmap, THAT, my friends, is fucking terrifying.  THAT, is making art.

It’s terrifying to make your own path, unlike what all of your peers seem to be doing right now in their careers.  Or take the established rule book, and then do the opposite.  It takes courage to be real, to be genuine, to be exposed.  It is terrifying to take those tactics, use it, learn from it, modify it, improve it, and then commit to moving on to put something out into the world that is claimed as your own and unique. 

Let’s all make a secret pact, my dear friends reading this post from here in the land of professional social media where true innovation comes to die. Let’s turn it on its head and make a silent pledge to ourselves to not be cowed into submission by the managers, the lawyers, the consultants, the scared. Instead, let’s be brave and bold and dare to take some risks. Let’s choose to put more of ourselves into the world, consequences be damned. Because in the end, everyone of us will die. Let’s make better choices during our limited time here, and then save both the world and ourselves in the process.

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