John Daniels, a Kitty Hawk North Carolina resident took the photo of the Wright brother’s first flight, said of the brothers:

They were the “workingest boys I ever knew…It wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense”

from How Innovation Works and why it flourishes in freedom by Matt Ridley

The notion of fake it till you make it has become too prevalent in our culture. So much so that what passes now as vision, leadership, excellence, and innovation is garbage because it is fake. When you fake it till you make it you are still faking it.

I think the mind-numbing state of affairs we are in is in large part a result of faking it till you make it. And when real problems demanded real vision, leadership, excellence, and innovation we have been left with a vacuum cause all we had/have is fake.

There is no substitute for hard work. And the Wright Brothers demonstrated that hard work, inspired by a vision, helped them settle for nothing short of excellence. And that fueled a level of innovation that all the money in the world failed to deliver on — just look up Samuel Pierpont Langley.