What makes someone an innovator?

“If you want to innovate, it’s not a question of having new ideas, it’s a question of getting rid of old beliefs, and then you have a mind and a heart that is empty enough to welcome something new.”

The words of explorer and living legend, Dr Bertrand Piccard, who has made the space time and again to be able to redefine what it is to be human. The serial pioneer, whose historic round-the-world trips have taken humanity to new heights, was one of my guests this year on Inside Ideas.

History-maker

When Piccard took the controls of the Breitling Orbiter in 1999 with his teammate Brian Jones, the pair went on to complete the first non-stop around-the-world balloon flight. Then in 2016, this time joined by André Borschberg, Piccard co-piloted the first ever round-the-world solar powered flight, in the now iconic Solar Impulse plane.

More recently, the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment, Special Advisor to the European Commission, and Founder and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation embarked on another 360 trip around the world. This time in pursuit of 1000 innovative solutions that can ‘protect the environment in a profitable way’.  

And earlier this year Piccard and the Solar Impulse Foundation didn’t only hit that target, they surpassed it, identifying more than ‘1000 solutions’ that can both accelerate the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and generate the economic gains policy makers demand.

“We now have the proof that enough solutions exist today to make our world more efficient, and sustainable. Therefore, no excuses are left for inaction as decision-makers cannot pretend anymore that ecology is too expensive, hurts the economy, and destroys jobs,” Bertrand said.

To help business leaders, investors and other key decision-makers access the innovations they need, the Foundation’s Solutions Guide offers a searchable tool for users to discover ‘solutions to problems in specific geographical, industrial, or financial settings’. And following a recent report showing progress on the Goals is going backwards for the first time, this is a game-changer with the potential to get the SDGs back on track.

Mindsets

Impossible isn’t a word that gets much of an airing in the Piccard household, because his mindset is always about disproving it.

“The impossible does not exist in reality. The impossible exists in the mindsets of the people who are sticking to old ways of thinking, and they believe – with their learning, their experience of the past, that something is impossible. 

Ditching these old beliefs is ‘how you become really progressive, inventive, innovative and successful’ Bertrand says.

“And if you learn how to change the paradigm, change the way of thinking then you open completely new opportunities that will allow you to make something possible. It’s exactly like the first aeroplane. The first aeroplane was made out of wood and cloth, which means that the Egyptians could have flown from the top of their pyramids 5,000 years ago but they did not do it because they believed that it was prohibited by the Gods. And in the beginning of the 20^th century you had some explorers who said we don’t care about these old rules and they started to fly.”

What a huge honour it is to welcome Bertrand onto the podcast.