Consistency is the Mother of Invention
Invention's secret weapon hiding in plain sight... but you're not going to like it.
Invention is often perceived as a stroke of genius—a eureka moment that changes everything. We romanticize the idea of innovation, thinking of lone inventors in their workshops or modern entrepreneurs sketching disruptive ideas on napkins. While the power of an epiphany is undeniable, it masks a crucial reality: true invention is rarely spontaneous. It’s the product of consistent effort, iteration, and discipline.
The expression “necessity is the mother of invention” has its merit. We invent to solve problems, to address needs, and to overcome limitations. But what’s often overlooked is that consistency—the daily grind, the repeated attempts, the willingness to show up again and again—is equally, if not more, crucial to innovation. Without it, necessity remains a mere catalyst, a starting point, without the fuel to move it forward.
The Myth of the Lightning Bolt
Let’s demystify invention. Yes, the history books are filled with tales of singular breakthroughs: Thomas Edison’s lightbulb, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, or even more recently, Steve Jobs’ iPhone. Yet beneath these headline moments are years of perseverance, failed experiments, and gradual progress.
My favorite example of this is Archimedes, perhaps because of Bernard Lonergan’s deep unpacking of cognitional moments leading up to his Eureka (or perhaps because running through the city naked after a mighty insight may or may not be on my bucket list). Here’s the breakdown:
Insight comes as a release of the tension of inquiry.
Insight comes suddenly and unexpectedly.
Insight is a function, not of outer circumstances, but of inner conditions.
Insight pivots between the concrete and the abstract.
Insight passes into the habitual texture of one’s mind.
Notice what this entails. You can’t make insight happen. All you can do is continue to endure the tension of inquiry, living the questions as Rilke would say, cultivating the inner conditions and encountering the concrete lived reality of your life for the constant pivot that lends itself to insight.
This is why creativity is the fruit of a consistent practice.
The same is true in the realm of entrepreneurship. No successful founders can create unicorn companies overnight. They spend years iterating, refining, and testing their products, business models, and customer problems. For every 🦄, there’s an untold number of pivots, redesigns, and back-end revisions that the world never sees. The companies and founders that make it aren’t always the smartest or the luckiest—they’re the ones who stick with it, adapting and improving consistently over time.
The Feedback Loop of Innovation
One of the reasons consistency is so critical to invention is that it enables a feedback loop of learning and improvement. Each iteration, even when it feels like a failure, is an opportunity to gather data, test assumptions, and refine your approach. Without the discipline to return to the problem day after day, you miss out on the essential learning that comes with iteration.
The software development world has long embraced this philosophy through the practice of Agile development. Instead of waiting for a perfect product to emerge fully formed, teams commit to delivering small, incremental improvements regularly. This creates a cycle of constant feedback and adaptation—ensuring that the end result is shaped by real-world testing and user input rather than hypothetical idealizations.
The lesson here is clear: the breakthrough doesn’t come from a single moment of brilliance; it emerges from hundreds of smaller moments, each building on the last.
Consistency Builds Mastery
Consistency also has a more personal dimension. It builds expertise and mastery over time. The more you engage with a problem, the more you understand its nuances. Lean into that tension of inquiry. Stretch the surface area of the problem over time thereby increasing the opportunity for insight. This is true whether you’re learning a musical instrument, coding a new app, or building a business. The people who innovate the most are often the ones who have spent the most time thinking about and working in a particular space.
Think about the time and effort that goes into becoming world-class at anything—whether it’s a skill, a craft, or a profession. What separates the amateur from the professional isn’t just talent or intellect, but often hours of disciplined, focused practice. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the "10,000-hour rule," suggesting that it takes approximately that long to achieve mastery in any given field. This idea ties directly to the importance of consistency: mastery isn’t achieved through a one-time burst of effort but through sustained, repetitive work.
This brings us to a critical point for leaders and innovators. If you want to be a better inventor, a better creator, or a better entrepreneur, the answer isn’t to seek out the next big idea—it’s to commit to showing up and doing the work, every single day.
Embracing the Grind
But let’s be honest: consistency can be grueling. The day-to-day work of invention isn’t glamorous. It’s tedious, and at times, it feels like you’re making no progress at all. The trick is learning to embrace the grind—to find meaning and satisfaction in the process, not just the end result.
There’s a parallel here to physical training. Ask any athlete, and they’ll tell you that the key to performance isn’t just working hard on game day—it’s about showing up every day, pushing through pain, fatigue, and monotony. The breakthrough moments in sports, like in innovation, are a culmination of months or years of consistent effort.
In a world that celebrates the sizzle highlights, we need to celebrate the grinders—the people who take a long-term view and commit to the process. We need to shift our understanding of what it means to be innovative. Innovation isn’t a single event; it’s a practice, a habit, a mindset. And like any habit, it’s built over time through consistent action.
Conclusion: Commit to the Practice
So, where do we go from here? If you’re on the path of invention, entrepreneurship, or any creative endeavor, it’s important to ask yourself: are you waiting for a breakthrough, or are you actively building toward one?
The best ideas, products, and innovations don’t arrive fully formed. They are the product of consistent effort, daily progress, and the refusal to give up in the face of obstacles. By showing up every day, testing, learning, and refining, you are doing the work of invention. It’s not glamorous, but it’s how real breakthroughs happen.
Consistency is the mother of invention. There are no shortcuts.