Innovation is vital to the success of all businesses. Innovate or perish is the new mantra. Leaders must perpetually reinvent their processes, products, and services, because they typically have multiple competitors offering similar offerings. Only through innovation can most organizations differentiate.

“Innovation isn’t just a buzzword,” writes Total Nutrition Technology CEO Lourdes McAgy in a recent Forbes article. “It’s a tangible driver of business success. Innovation means continually seeking out new solutions and improvements.”

We often turn to brands like Amazon, Salesforce, or Tesla for models of innovative leadership. But could a famous pistol maker hold new secrets for organizations aspiring to be innovative?

Back in the Old West

Everyone who has watched a Western movie knows about the Colt pistol. It was the sidearm of choice for Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickok. But the real story is not about a pistol, but rather the trigger for the industrial revolution.

With an order to quickly produce a thousand pistols, Samuel Colt realized the “one-at-a-time” artisan approach to gun making would never work. Interchangeable parts would not only be more efficient, but he could finally realize his dream of an assembly line process for greater productivity. Henry Ford took Colt’s two concepts (interchangeable parts and assembly line production) and provided automobiles for the masses. Today, we would label Samuel Colt a disruptor.

Innovation leaders relentlessly traverse challenge

Colt was born in 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut. His grandfather thrilled him by giving him his old flintlock pistol. But Colt’s young life was laced with tragedy. When he was 6, his mother died from tuberculosis. Eventually, all three of his sisters died. At 11, he was indentured to a farm where he did chores and attended school. The farmer introduced him to The Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom, a book filled with exciting stories about everything from steamboat inventor Robert Fulton to gunpowder. Colt’s diligence was fueled by the stories he read, not by the misfortunes in his life.

Innovative leaders have always taken challenges head-on. Steve Jobs started Apple in his parents’ garage and made it a $2 billion company. But his board fired him to take Apple in a new direction. Propelled by sheer resilience, he started NeXT and Pixar, ultimately reclaiming his position as Apple CEO. He took the company to a value of $300 billion.

Twelve publishers turned down J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book. When Bloomsbury Group finally took her manuscript (paying her only a 1,500-pound advance), the editor told her to “get a day job.” Instead, she doubled her efforts. Today, she is a billionaire through her doggedness, and her books have sold more than 600 million copies.

Innovation leaders have a clear picture in their heads

One of young Colt’s chores was taking the horse and wagon to get supplies in Glastonbury, Connecticut, a shipbuilding town on the Connecticut River. On one trip, he listened to a group of soldiers rave about the prowess of the double-barreled rifle and scoff at the possibility of anyone devising a firearm that could shoot five or six times without reloading. It was an aha! moment for the 12-year-old Colt, and he vowed to become the person who would craft an “impossible gun.” It remained a picture in his head, a vision that would propel his work.

Innovation leaders live their work in reverse. They have a clear end goal and then plan backward to create a path to that vision. Armed with the picture in their head, they are less distracted by obstacles and minutiae. This enables laser focus, which is essential for going the distance. Dreams that have staying power are compelling, challenging, and most of all, colorful. They inspire those around them, not by the promise of wealth but by the calling of a grander purpose.

Innovation leaders are resource attractors

Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers saved Colt’s company. Walker had seen firsthand how well Colt’s pistols performed during the Seminole War and wanted to use them in the Mexican-American War. In 1847, he placed an order for 1,000 pistols. Colt turned to chief mechanic and inventor Elisha Root to set up his assembly line concept. He also brought artisan Bavarian gunmakers to add roll-die steel engraving for decorative branding flourishes that graced the well-made pistol. His company would produce more than 400,000 revolvers in the first 25 years.

Pioneers are often thought of as solitary daredevils who single-handedly take on giant challenges. But they are resource attractors, not hermits. Charles Lindbergh was backed by several businessmen from St. Louis to have Ryan Airlines from San Diego build the plane. Daniel Boone was an explorer for the Transylvania Company. Oprah Winfrey credits her grandmother as the motivator of her zeal to rise above a childhood of abuse and poverty to become a media superstar. Great innovative leaders value interdependence and synergy.

Innovation leaders have a passion for their brand

Colt was a marketing genius. He traveled the world promoting his revolvers, often giving them to celebrities in exchange for their permission to use their photos in popular magazines. Colt pistols were advertised being used on wild animal hunts or against bandits. Wild West performers sported Colt pistols. When he couldn’t get an audience with foreign heads of state as a private citizen, he talked the governor of Connecticut into making him a lieutenant colonel and an aide-de-camp in the state militia. His many promotional gifts to heads of state, various celebrities, and favored members of the press were often engraved “Compliments of Col. Colt.”

The impetus for Colt’s unleashed brand promotion was less about his personal ego and more about passion for the Colt pistol. Innovation leaders are quick to praise ingenuity and eager to make examples of those who take risks for a new way or a better approach. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, just “building a better mousetrap” will not create a path to your door. Folks must know about your better mousetrap—or newfangled pistol.

Published Feb. 15, 2025, in Forbes.