Innovators have an inward drive that pushes them to be vulnerable. If you don’t put yourself “out there,” you will never use your abilities to the fullest. Never let bad experiences in the past keep you from having great possibilities in the future. Always have a forward mind-set and let go of the past. This ensures that you will always maximize your potential.

When an individual has a bad experience in any area of life, it causes them to stray away from ever having an experience like it again. Unfortunately, in the process of straying away, people tend to shut down any possibility of a different outcome in the future. They shelter themselves from all experiences for fear it will turn into a bad experience. This causes people to erect a self-made prison built on negativity and skepticism, effecting both their personal and professional life. Mark Twain said, “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it, and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again, and that is well, but also she will never sit down on a cold one either.”

 Zig Ziglar told of a famous study done about the effects of bad experiences. Scientists took a group of fleas and put them in a jar with a lid. The fleas tried hard to jump out, but were met with disappointment as they smashed their little heads against the lid. After a period of time, scientists removed the lid, providing an escape for the fleas. They were home free! But the fleas didn’t take advantage of this new found freedom. Had they become content in their little mason jar home? Not quite. The fleas did not escape because they had conditioned themselves to jump below the height of the lid. They believed the lid was still on the jar. They were living on past experience rather than exploring the possibility of escape. We, too, can condition ourselves to jump only as high as the lids that we and others place on our lives. When we stop moving forward for fear of having a bad experience, we waste the possibility of having a great experience.

Get out there and do what you know you are capable of doing! Don’t let bad experience’s effect limit your innovation in life.