“Prove it” will “Kill it”

Elon Musk, widely recognized as a successful serial entrepreneur and innovator, recently responded to a question from an audience that I found to be a pervasive innovation barrier in the workplace. The question was how he responded to investors or other leaders whose initial response to an idea is either “where has this been done before” or “can you prove it will work?” His response was that virtually all meaningful innovation would cease to exist if those who came up with the idea had to prove the idea would work before even starting.