In business, we often only try to make the possible possible. This is not really innovation. It is playing it safe. Innovation happens when we make the impossible possible.

Consider that every innovation and new idea and solution was, at some point in time, impossible. It simply couldn’t be done. Everyone who said, “It can’t be done” was right. And then someone set out to do it anyway. Eventually, the idea shifts to something not yet real, but it seems within reach. Take, for instance, travel to Mars today: it doesn’t seem impossible to us at present, it’s just technically really, really hard. The idea has evolved from impossible to improbable (at least, improbable today).

More work is done, and, one by one, each obstacle is overcome. Eventually, the idea turns into something that is possible—and real. Later, when we take a moment to reflect, we are no longer surprised that the idea has turned into reality. In fact, we actually consider it as being inevitable.

In this way, innovations are ideas that transform from impossible to improbable and finally inevitable.

What exactly causes this to happen? Two words: “What if…”

What if, instead of using the Pony Express to send money, we could use copper cables?

What if the way to reach the moon is not to build a rocket that stays intact but to instead construct one that falls apart in stages as it ascends?

What if the best way to get an item to someone is not to deliver it but to create it onsite with a printer?

It all starts with an idea that appears to be beyond the reality of what’s possible.

You may wonder how to determine if something can turn from being impossible into reality. Well, we can’t know this in the sense that we foretell the future—we know it because we create it.

Take the next step

Try and add something completely new to your life. (It doesn’t have to be anything technical—it can be from any part of your life.) Something that you believe is impossible. Pay attention to how it feels to create the impossible.