Often I have sat with investors and entrepreneurs, and had more or less brain storming sessions. The thing that amazes me is almost every time an “outside of the box” idea was brought forth the first thing the investors would ask is can it be profitable within 12 months. Also in my current profession (equity research) I have seen the same trend developing. It used to be that you could recommend a company with upwards of a three year time frame. This kind of recommendation is now frowned upon. Now it is all about the trading call.

I think this has all stemmed from our societies need for instant gratification. Most innovation now a days seems to try and speed our lives up even more. There is a long list of examples. The home cooked meal is now fast food, phone calls are now short text messages, blogs are now short twitts, hand written letters are now email, and on and on. Things are getting so fast that the most consumers are intimidated to even try and keep up. I often wonder if it would be a better strategy for investors to slow down and perfect the underutilized innovations of today. Why not work on getting the mass market to understand what is possible today and make things less intimidating?

There is a boat load of money to be made if people understood what was possible. The tech community is stuck in its own bubble and I think it forgets about the masses. It is time to remove the fear from the mass market, get everyone caught up, and then move forward once again. If we are to every truly change the world then we, as a society, need to realize all great things come with time and dedication.