There are many groundbreaking ideas and inventions that have transformed how we live our daily lives, so forward-looking that they set a precedent for future generations to follow. Inventive thinking is usually characterised by breaking away from the status quo, making traditions obsolete and introducing new, unanticipated paradigms. A true innovator is someone who sees what others have seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.
Take the everyday banana for example. Almost every banana we consume is descended from a plant grown at the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire, thanks to the remarkable horticulturalist Jospeh Paxton. Bananas were first grown there in 1830 when head gardener Joseph Paxton obtained a specimen imported from Mauritius. Paxton was a visionary, described in his obituary in The Times, in June 1865 as the greatest gardener of his time, a man of genius.
Born into a humble farming family, Paxton was the archetypal self-made Victorian, whose inquisitive nature and industrious energy propelled him to the forefront of horticultural thinking. He was as much an entrepreneurial thinker in his day as Steve Jobs.
He arrived at Chatsworth in 1826 aged 23 years old and the garden needed much work. Paxton had been working in the Royal Horticultural Society's experimental gardens at Kew, first as a student and then as a foreman in charge of the arboretum. The 6th Duke of Devonshire enjoyed walking in the gardens and talking to Paxton. The Duke convinced him to become his Head Gardener at Chatsworth.
Together they changed the garden radically, introducing exotic species and giant rockeries. Paxton designed many garden features at Chatsworth including the Great Conservatory, the forerunner of his design for the Crystal Palace, built for the 1851 Great Exhibition. He also designed Birkenhead Park, considered the first publicly funded park in Britain. Incidentally, the Duke was succeeded by William Cavendish as the 7th Duke of Devonshire who became Chancellor of Cambridge University and founder of the Cavendish Laboratory, home to many physics innovations.
However, of Paxton’s horticultural successes, one outshines all others: the Musa Cavendishii, or the ‘Dwarf Cavendish Banana’. Paxton bought a sample cutting for £10. He cultivated it in plenty of water, rich loam soil and well-rotten dung. It flowered for the first time in November 1835. By May 1836 over one hundred fruits were ripening. Paxton won a Gold Medal at the RHS that year.
Paxton and the Duke re-exported a number of trees via missionaries to Samoa, South Seas, Pacific and the Canary Islands. This plant is the ancestor of the most commercially grown bananas worldwide today. Seven billion Cavendish Bananas are eaten in the UK each year alone. The original Cavendish plant continue to be grown at Chatsworth and produces 100 bananas each year. The variety is a denser, less sweet variety than those sold in the supermarkets.
The Cavendish banana turned out to be a hardy, resistant to diseases that affected other bananas, replacing the Gros Michel variety, which was devastated by a fungal disease. It was tastier, had better texture and was more flavoursome, and its size and shape made it easier to ship. Thanks to these qualities, the Cavendish banana became popular and replaced other types of bananas that were being grown commercially.
This is an important aspect of any innovation – there is a commercial outcome from innovation endeavours. So whether you’re bootstrapping your startup or nurturing bananas, these two pursuits have a lot in common about the focus from an innovator.
1. A startup is an experiment It took Paxton five years to grow a banana tree that produced fruit. His diaries are a fascinating record of working out what grew well, what needed more attention. All startup founders understand this embryonic, emergent process of trial and error. No one ends up with success day one. Your startup venture is all about learning and testing, figuring out how to get product-market fit.
2. Pruning and cutting back is important Paxton frequently saw unproductive, wandering, spindly offshoots emerge from his endeavours, just as some customers take up your time and resources, detracting from your ability to service genuine, higher-value customers. You know them, they’ll always meet over a cup of coffee’ when all they really want is just free consultancy – and a free coffee! They make work for you that won’t move your business forward, so prune back to give yourself the best chance of success.
3. Timing is everything To everything, there is a season said Paxton, you have to be organised to ensure you do the things when they need doing. There is a cycle of growth in nature, just as there is in business. Inevitably there will be times when it’s all planning and nothing to harvest – just like your startup, when you’re working hard but not generating revenue. Don’t stand still though, there are always jobs to be done.
4. Get a routine Innovation is a full-time project which requires planning, structure and process, and you need to get out there even when you’re not in the mood. Seeing a project through from start to finish or, in horticultural terms, from planting to harvesting, is extremely rewarding. Entrepreneurs have discipline in that they are relentlessly focused on moving their business forward in some way everyday, they just make it happen.
5. You have to get your hands dirty It was obvious for Paxton, but metaphorically for your startup, you have to do some things you don’t want to do to reap the harvest. Not every project or task will be fun, but the rewards are worth it. If not, go back and prune and cut. And if your hands get dirty, a little soap and warm water will help, followed by a good cup of tea.
6. Deal with the pests Panama disease infects banana plants, and in the1950s, almost wiped-out commercial Gros Michel banana production. Since 2010, a new outbreak has threatened the Cavendish banana. It’s the same in your startup. If you make a bad hire, they can damage your culture. The longer a pest is given free reign, the harder it will be to regain control, so prevent them or stop them early in their tracks before they do damage.
7. There will be failures What I am learning from Paxton’s diaries is the best gardeners do not work their plot simply to prosper from its produce, they do so to continually learn from the process so they may become better over time. Paton was resilient and persevered. He adjusted and was flexible – in today’s startup lexicon, he pivoted many times in those first five years of his banana growing from the first sample plant. Take these qualities into your own innovation mindset.
8. Curiosity does not kill the cat Stephen Hawking said: Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.
Paxton reached great heights because he never stopped asking how and why questions. Occasionally, I find an answer. Curiosity and asking questions can take you to new places, overcoming self-made barriers. Curiosity keeps you curious, growing, and moving forward.
9. Let nothing stop you from doing what you can do Paxton did not stop innovating at any point in his life. Minor hiccups should not stop you from moving ahead, adapt to the change facing you, reroute and move forwards. Never be idle. When you enjoy doing something, it is no longer work. Don’t just keep the hands busy, keep the mind active as well.
Hawking’s words again resonate here: Obstacles are inevitable and uncontrollable. What you can control is your ability to use your strengths, without focusing too much on the hurdles and roadblocks.
10. Have a purpose and be an optimists Innovators possess a strong sense of purpose and a deep-seated belief fuelled by optimism in the potential of their ideas. They are driven by an intense passion and a relentless pursuit of their goals.
The apparent simplicity of a horticulturalist’s endeavours is the same as a startup: Dig. Plant. Weed. Feed. Watch. Prune. Yield. Enjoy. Ok, there won’t be the intransigent brambles or the pesky weeds in your own venture, but Paxton’s five years of innovation investment are just like your startup: make investments today, work hard, and enjoy some of the most fulfilling times of your life.
Summary
Never let your doubts sabotage your thinking, there are far better things ahead than any we leave behind. We are all confined by the mental walls we build around ourselves that constrain our ambition or threaten our self-belief. Sometimes innovation starts with a Eureka moment which kick-starts your thinking – a moment of truth, flash of brilliance or the end result of a bout of determined reflection to make a difference. Other times it’s a dawning realisation after many hours or days of effort.
None of us can ignore the innovation thinking and endeavours of Paxton and its impact on our everyday lives. When I finished the final page of his diary, I was filled with admiration and hope, that humans are wired to be innovators. So, next time you enjoy a banana, remember Joseph Paxton, the gardener who helped make it possible, and adopt his mindset, spirit and fortitude to your own innovation ambitions.
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