There are few products less sexy that a thermostat. It is a boring, utilitarian commodity, right? The world agreed for over 100 years…until the lead designer of the iPod decided to shake things up.

Tony Fadell took a completely fresh approach and challenged conventional wisdom. Rather than starting with the existing competitive set, he shattered industry norms from design to function. The result? The incredible new device known as the Nest Learning Thermostat.

Besides its distinctive look, this baby ain’t your father’s thermostat. The artificial intelligence “learns” your habits. It has sensors to know when you are away so it doesn’t heat or cool an empty house. It’s connected to the web and evaluates external weather conditions to determine how to best respond inside. You can even control it from a smartphone app on the go.

All this whiz-bang technology does more than fuel your inner geek. The Nest saves its owners an average of 20% off their utility bills and helps reduce our reliance on foreign oil. All the while, it saves the environment by reducing emissions. Cool, huh?

It gets better. From a business perspective, the Nest sells for $250 each, and is completely sold-out. Compare that to the widely available and incredibly boring Honeywell programmable thermostat that sells for $22. That’s right… the sold-out Nest sells for ten times the price of the find-anywhere industry standard.

Once again, innovation carries the day. Even in a commodity business that appeared to offer no room for breakthrough thinking, creative fire has charred competitors into dust overnight.

As author Gary Hamel famously said, “Somewhere there’s an entrepreneur forging a bullet with your company’s name on it. Your only option is to shoot first. You must out-innovate the innovators.” Even if you are enjoying success, the disruptive forces of change can deliver a knockout blow at a moment’s notice. To win today, you need to embody creativity and innovation. There’s just no room for complacency.

Take a good look in the mirror and examine your own business. Are your products and services me-too commodities, or are they truly differentiated? Is there an opportunity to inject new thinking in either form or function to set the new standard?

Imagine there’s a Nest equivalent in your own industry – some upstart that’s just about to shatter the mold and reinvent the business. Now imagine that you are that disruptor. What would you do differently? How would you take on the sleeping giants? How could you apply creativity to your product, process, or communication to rock the very foundation of your field?

In today’s competitive environment, staying the course is the kiss of death. Nest disrupted thermostats; what will you choose to do in your industry? It’s time to sprint toward the future instead of clinging to the past. It’s time to imagine what’s possible, instead of just what is. It’s time to turn up the heat.

Oh wait… my Nest just did that for me.

Most of us have something to pitch. You may be pitching your startup to a VC to secure funding. Or perhaps you’re pitching your product or service to potential customers. Whether you are pitching your case to a jury, your hypothesis for a research grant, yourself for a new job, or your best friend for a date with that cute guy, a simple rule applies: the better the pitch, the better the results.

As a venture capitalist, I hear pitches every day. In this highly competitive environment, a strong pitch can be the difference-maker between securing millions in funding and completely missing the mark.

There are many obvious cliché moves: give a firm handshake, communicate with passion, make strong eye-contact, and try to relate with your audience. Yet there are approaches I see constantly that sabotage an otherwise good pitch. To significantly improve your batting average, avoid these disaster moves when pitching just about anything:

1) THE RUN-ON SENTENCE: One of my pet peeves is listening to someone drone on for a 45-minute monologue. In your big moment, your instinct is to communicate everything you know, the entire history of your idea, and endless amusing anecdotes. Avoid this urge! Your pitch will be 100 times more powerful if you can make it concise. Make every word count.

2) THE FACT LEAP: Anyone who is being pitched has turned on their highly-developed BS-detector to full tilt. We are questioning everything you say and trying to poke holes in your story. So the minute you exaggerate a stat, make an outrageous claim, or state a fact that can be challenged, your credibility crumbles.

3) THE OVERSELL: If you make a strong point once, it resonates. If you feel the need to make the same point several times you end up diluting the power of the message. If you keep pushing a point, you transform before our eyes from a passionate world-changer to a used-car-salesperson or infomercial pitchman. If what you are pitching it that special, you don’t need to oversell it.

4) THE S.A.T.: When responding to a question, just answer it directly. If you tell a four-minute story that includes 73 data points, the listener feels like they are taking an S.A.T. exam in which they need to sift through all the irrelevant stuff in order to get the answer. This does not help you shine or get your message heard.

5) THE GREAT GATSBY: Grandiose braggers may entertain at cocktail parties, but they rarely win the battle of the pitch. Keep it authentic and real. Your startup with 11 beta customers isn’t a billion-dollar company just yet. Think big, but stay humble. After hearing a pitch where the daring hero outperforms Groupon and Apple in their second year with trillions of revenue and six billion customers, I’m ready for a shower instead of a closing dinner.

Hone your pitch to stand out from the hapless masses that continue to fall into the same traps. In turn, you’ll land the job, get the girl, win the capital, and seize your full potential.

He’s been called the modern day Thomas Edison, the Beethoven of business, and the most prolific visionary since Henry Ford.  Yet as Steve Jobs steps down from the helm of Apple, he has left us with so much more than incredible technology.

Jobs completely transformed the industries of personal computing, digital animation (Pixar), music, mobile phones, and now tablets.  He created the most valuable company in the world and impacted the way billions of people live their daily lives.  But beyond his accomplishments, he’s taught us lessons in leadership and life.  The characteristics he embodied can serve as a roadmap for us all to become better in business, community, family, and personal achievement.

For all us kids from 1 to 92, Steve’s guiding principles can help us live our best life and make the biggest difference:

1)    Put Passion First – He followed his heart and let the operational details fall into place.  He refused to put a governor on his burning desire to reach new heights.

2)    Never Limit Your Imagination – He always imagined the ideal solution or product and never cut corners or watered down his most potent ideas due to setbacks or fear.

3)    Pursue Greatness over Money – Steve didn’t chase the mighty dollar.  Rather, he focused on making the biggest possible impact and the money followed.

4)    Demand Excellence – Critics complain of his exacting style and “unrealistic” demands.  There’s a natural gravitational force of mediocrity, and sometimes it takes an aggressive stance to rise above the sea of sameness.

5)    Put Yourself Out of Business – Steve was never satisfied, and constantly strove to be the force of disruptive change that would make the Steve of six months ago irrelevant.  Never clinging to past successes, he maintained intense urgency around continuous reinvention.

6)    Challenge Conventional Wisdom – When there were norms, he lived to shatter them.  Nearly every step of his success can be traced to inspired thinking that stuck his finger in the eye of the complacent incumbents.

7)    Simplify – ‘Nuff said.

8)    Ignore the Naysayers – If he listened to the “sound advice” of others, we’d never even know his name.  He never let the fear of others interfere with his own trajectory.

9)    Persist – While today he sits victorious, there were many times he nearly lost it all.  There were dark days at Apple, Pixar, and even in his personal life.  Where others throw in the towel, Steve stared into the abyss and never accepted defeat.

10)   Never Pigeonhole – Steve wasn’t a “computer executive.”  He was a visionary change agent and could not be constrained. He realized his calling was far beyond any categorical label.

11)   Push Beyond What You Think is Possible – When Steve heard “that can’t be done”, it only emboldened his resolve.  He constantly drove himself and others to reach new heights.

Whether you’re building a tech startup, raising three kids or running a soup kitchen, these indelible philosophies serve as a roadmap to success.  While you may organize your thoughts on your MacBook, communicate with your team on your iPhone, and later jam some tunes on your iPod, the impact of Steve Jobs is far greater than the devices he’s provided.  Rather, he’s given us a model to reach our full potential.

Steve famously said he wanted to “put a ding in the universe.”  You have done that, my friend, and so much more.  The impact you’ve made is immeasurable, and has inspired a generation to “think different.”  Thank you for taking the path less travelled, for conquering the never-been-done, and for leading with purpose.  Thank you for changing the world.

Get this – Apple, Inc. now has more money than the US Government. According to a report in the Financial Post this week, the U.S. operating balance now stands at roughly $73.8 billion compared to the $75.9 billion of cash that Apple has on hand. How is it possible that the tech giant has more money that the world’s biggest economic superpower?

We can debate debt ceilings and policy all day long, but something still strikes me here. A company that started the same year our nation was celebrating her 200th birthday is now in a stronger financial position than its home country.

How is it that a single company can become so successful, and in turn change the lives of millions of people around the world? How can a company become not just a financial powerhouse, but also an icon of innovation, design, and culture?

Jobs and team have built something much more special than a cash-creation machine. As Steve likes to say, they have truly put a “ding in the universe.” Their success isn’t rooted in number crunching, cost cutting, or audit controls. No trick-the-customer, deal-of-the-day, or Wall Street gaming. Rather, they’ve built an enduring brand and culture that is now recognized as the most valuable tech company in the world.

Here are five lessons from Apple that we can all embrace to drive success in our companies, careers, and communities:

1. Shatter Conventional Wisdom. While some ‘fraidy-cat executives cower at thought of straying outside the lines, the folks at Apple live to disrupt. They don’t waste their valuable brainstorm sessions on driving .21% incremental margin or extracting costs by using cheap materials. Instead, they direct their energy toward changing the world.

2. No Limits. In our fear-based society, we often gravitate to all the reasons something can’t be done. So often, we let imaginary barriers restrict us for reaching our true potential. Not Apple. They refuse to be derailed and let those seemingly insurmountable challenges drive their cause instead of squash their dreams.

3. Innovation Wins. The culture at Apple celebrates the risk takers. The dreamers. The creators. They realize that creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of the organization, and have built a culture and philosophy that rewards it.

4. Design Matters. The folks at Apple know that design is as important as function. Their products are beautiful works of art rather than utilitarian machinery. They focus not just on what their gear does, but how it makes their customers feel. All five senses are delighted by design, and customers are willing to pay handsomely as a result.

5. Passion First. Apple doesn’t chase money, they pursue purpose. They build products and services that they love and want to use themselves. They connect deeply to the impact they will make on customers, and follow their hearts instead of earnings-per-share. As a result, the money follows. Big time.
Apple may have more cash than our government right now, but their real value goes much deeper than their balance sheet. More than their billions, they’ve managed to build a culture of innovation that will continue to drive success and change the world. Maybe the US Government can learn a thing or two here. Maybe we all can.

Hey brother Jobs, can you spare a dime?

I am completely outraged. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Illinois) testified on the floor of the U.S. Congress about the evils of innovation (watch video clip). He criticized Steve Jobs for inventing the iPad because it will end up displacing workers in traditional printing houses. He suggests that the United States Government should regulate innovation that negatively impacts non-competitive and outdated industries.

Are you kidding me???

This is exactly the type of backwards, protectionist thinking that crumbles both governments and companies. Perhaps Mr. Jackson never bothered to read Darwin or study history, but adapting to the times and driving progress through innovation have been the key ingredients of success for centuries. Look at Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, or Apple. Each has created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of wealth (not to mention tax-base which ironically pays the very members of congress who prefer to complain rather than create).

Mr. Jackson’s irrational argument flies in the face human progress. Should we have stopped the printing press since it would put the hand-scribing Monks out of work? In the early 1900’s, should we have curbed the auto industry since it could have impacted jobs in the cart-and-buggy arena? Prohibit drug therapies because healthier people may damage the morgue industry? Insanity!

Finger-pointing zealots and talking-head pundits don’t drive the economy, innovators do.

Rather than restrict innovation, we must realize that new ideas, fresh thinking, and creativity have become the currency of success; in both business and life.

There is a battle being waged between two opposing camps. On the one side, there are those that focus on the past. They prefer protectionism, blame, and entitlement over creativity and innovation. They thrive by extinguishing new ideas, casting doubt and fear, and breeding mediocrity. They’d rather sharply criticize the problem than go out on a limb and be part of the solution.

Fortunately, the other camp – the Creative Class – is starting to win this battle. Imagination is beating rigidity. Responsible risk-taking is eclipsing bureaucracy. As a society, we are at a tipping point. Those that focus on imagining a better future and then have the courage to take action are leaving the fear-mongering hoarders in the dust.

You have a choice. We all do. You can cling tightly to the past and long for the good old days gone by. Or you can get on with creating, inventing, dreaming… and winning. Reminds me of one of my favorite proverbs from ancient China: “Man who says it can’t be done should not interrupt man doing it.”

With all due respect, Mr. Jackson, it’s time for legislation that fosters innovation, not restricts it. Suggesting anything else is outrageous. In fact, we should all be outraged.

Sir Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group, announced this week that the first Spaceport (an airport for recreational space travel) will be built in New Mexico to support his newest business effort, Virgin Galactic. As he’s done in the past with music and air travel, Branson is pioneering new ground. And he’s always been fueled by a powerful emotion: the desire to put a thumb in the eye of the complacent incumbents. The need to “stick it to the man.”

Great ideas have been fueled by this same visceral desire for centuries. Columbus wanted to prove that the King was wrong. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to show the good-looking jocks at Harvard that he could beat them at getting girls by using his creativity to launch Facebook. Steve Jobs felt that intense fire so much that he made Apple TV commercials that mocked his rival Bill Gates.

So let’s put that passion to work for you with a fun exercise to spark creative ideas. The name? You guessed it… Stick it to the man!

We’ve all felt kicked around at some point in our lives. Perhaps it was the school bully, or an overbearing boss, or the seemingly unbeatable competition. Here’s your chance to get back. In this exercise, it is your job to be irreverent. To pick a fight. To shake things up.

To begin, think about a creative challenge and what you could do to really piss people off. Start with your boss. What ideas would send her into cardiac arrest? Next, move on to your competition. Think of all the things you could do to ruin their day. To pour salt in their wounds. To send them off the deep end.

Now that you are having fun, don’t stop there. What would create environmental outrage? What would engender a political explosion? Can you think of anything so obnoxious and racy that a riot may ensue? Don’t hold back. Here’s the one time where you goal is to be politically incorrect.

This type of thinking forces you way outside your normal thought process, and will help you generate wild creative sparks. Once you have a nice list of offensive ideas, scaling them back to something palatable will be easy. The hard part was accomplished in the midst of your mischievous fun – breaking old thought patterns and letting your creative abilities shine.

So go ahead ….throw stones, kick sand in their faces, and let your creativity soar to new heights in the process.

Imagine you had the challenge of inventing a better mousetrap. Literally. A typical brainstorm session may yield incremental improvements in the spring on a mousetrap, or the bait, or the construction materials.

The whole essence of igniting your curiosity is to question and challenge everything. Why does a mousetrap need to use a spring at all? What other ways are there to catch a mouse? How could a mouse be contained in a completely different way?

The more radical you allow your curiosity to wonder, the better. “What if we pumped water into the house and filled the entire house in order to flood the mice out?” This type of breakthrough thinking is exactly what you should seek. Of course you would not actually ruin an entire house with water, but perhaps you’d invent a mousetrap that catches mice in a water-based trap. The essence is to push yourself and your team outside of normal boundaries and let your imagination run wild. You can always tame it back later as needed.

Best-selling author and professor of psychology at the University of Chicago Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi said, “Creativity generally involves crossing the boundaries of domains. The most creative among us see relationships the rest of us never notice.”

True originality has never emerged from a formula. Rules are precisely what innovators and other paradigm shifters break. And to reach these new heights of creativity, let an unbridled sense of curiosity and awareness serve as your building blocks.

The old expression, “Curiosity killed the cat” couldn’t be more useless and out of date. A more appropriate phrase in light of today’s global business climate would be, “A lack of curiosity killed the cat”, or, “Curiosity helped the cat catch the mouse.”

Especially with your new patent-pending, revolutionary, groundbreaking water-based mousetrap.

Think of all the stories we tell ourselves that hold us back. “I’m too old”, “I didn’t go the right school”, “I’m too short”, “I’m not good-looking enough”, “I can’t take the risk”, “I don’t have the right connections”, “I’m not creative”.

We all have fears and doubts. Even Ghandi. Even Steve Jobs. Even Barack Obama. One of the key differences between those that do extraordinary things and those that don’t is the courage to move ahead even in the face of adversity. They have the same imaginary limits that we all do. The difference is that they recognize these fallacies for what they are – imaginary demons that can be confronted and conquered.

“That’s all good, but I didn’t go to Harvard”, you might say. Well neither did Joseph Hudicka . Not only hasn’t he gotten into the “right” college, he hasn’t even made it to middle school yet. That’s because Joseph turned eight years old in January, and is already a high-tech businessman. Dubbed “The Little Entrepreneur”, Joseph created a new video game (a fusion between checkers and hockey) called Puckz. With a little help from his parents, he built an iPhone and iPad version and now sells his game in Apple’s AppStore.

What is Joseph talked himself out of going for it due to his age or his inexperience as an entrepreneur? What if he “played it safe” and just focused on baseball and French fries like most other 3rd graders? Come to think of it, what if Thomas Edison held his ideas back? Or Picasso? Or Martin Luther King?

Thinking of your own situation what do you do with your creative ideas? We all have dozens of ideas each day, but most of us hold them inside – too afraid to look foolish or make a mistake. This is a tragedy because creative expression is a talent we all have, and one of the most rewarding aspects of life. Letting your ideas and imagination out is your way to leave your fingerprints on the world. To make a difference. To create something larger than yourself.

This week, try to keep an eye out for your imaginary barriers. Those twitches of self-doubt that get in the way of your progress and your ideas. Look those ugly monsters right in their yellow eyes and don’t back down. Your courage will make them evaporate, and you can get on with changing the world. Joseph Hudicka did it at eight. What are you waiting for?