Why Innovative People Fail

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/08/22/why-innovative-people-fail/

The secret to success, he says, is that “great leaders learn to find a yin for their yang. They have to learn to have humility. They’re passionate about something, and they have to find someone equally passionate about their [areas of] weakness.” Business lore is full of classic examples – Walt and Roy Disney, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

If you can successfully balance “idea monkeys” with the “ringleaders” who keep the trains running on time, you can avoid the pitfalls of both startups (which tend to flame out) and established companies (which tend to stagnate). “There’s a reason why entrepreneurs fall off a cliff after 18 months, or three years, or five years,” says Maddock, a fellow Forbes contributor. “You’ll have lunch with the entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you about this amazing idea, and six months later, they’ve got another different, amazing idea. You say, ‘Wait a minute, what about the other idea?’ and they’ll tell you, ‘This one is way better!’ Most entrepreneurs will run out of money, and run out of patient investors, because they’re working on too many things.”