From the BIF-2 Summit: The obvious catalyst

Once you see the innovators speak and share their stories it becomes so obvious! The bulk of them share an uncontrollable and near infectious trait - a passion for what they do. It’s the stuff that makes them different from regular working folk and propels them ever forward.

In fact, our storytellers seem to drip with "innovation intent," a factor that BIF research advisor Larry Keeley from Doblin considered essential to innovation at an organizational level.

Folks like Tim Westergren from Pandora has spent 7 years breaking down songs into 400 little bits that can be analyzed and used as a basis to recommend similar songs to curious listeners. He started small and grew, scaled the company back when times were tough, took no salary for 2 years and wham! … he's an overnight success.

Or take Curt Columbus, Creative Director of Trinity Rep Theater, who is bringing high quality theater back to the community at large. Curt knew he wanted to be in theater since he was 11 years old and it certainly took passion to get him to this point and incremental innovations for him to be successful in his efforts.

I guess the interesting thing about passion is that it is difficult to mask. Let's just say you know it when you see it.