Nurture your Innovator!

Lane Wallace writes about Steve Jobs as an innovator, and expands the scope to write about what makes an innovator. Money quote:

...K.R. Sridhar, the CEO of the innovative energy start-up company Bloom Energy, attributes his inventor's vision to four elements in his childhood:
1) Exposure to many cultures, which instilled in him a belief that just because something was done a particular way didn't mean there weren't 16 other valid ways it could be done.
2) support and enthusiasm for trying new things. ...
3) support for failure. ...
4) A belief that finding innovative ways to make the world better is important. A mind in search of better ideas, even if they sound radical, is more likely to stumble across one.