I 2 I (Ideas to Innovation) There Ain't No Rules

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeM. A. Rosanoff: "Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe."

Edison: "There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish somep'n!" — Thomas Edison

From Ideas to Innovation ( I 2 1) Thomas Edison, an inventor, was the first to solve the riddle of how to create the light bulb. It wasn't without its challenges. He had difficulties finding the appropriate filament. At the end of it, the solution to the problem was as simple as a piece of carbonated cardboard.

Within every business - small, large, for profit, for non-profit - there lies within it an acorn of an idea that first begins with a question: "What problem am I trying to solve? "

Without asking that question businesses, would be entrepreneurs, inventors, thinkers, and their associates can get lost in the mud pretty fast never mind becoming to vulnerable to their competitors.

It also hampers the creative flow and process, blocking the opportunity for innovative ideas and realizing possibilities.

Recently through One International and as posted on YouTube by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation I came across an interesting call to action called Reinventing the Toilet.

So, for all you innovators, thinkers, possibility makers, and rule breakers - what will you be able to accomplish with your I 2 I? And, how many of you would be Thomas Edisons will rise to Gate Foundation's challenge? It's time - let's do it!