Our Filipino brains have sadly grown used to a culture of acceptance and resignation. The sad fact: the path of least resistance is the path most taken. The status quo has allowed us to be at our most glaringly indifferent; as such, most of us have blindingly accepted our fate, mucking and muttering, "This is the way it has always been, and this is the way it will always be."

Applied to the context of business, entrepreneurship, and social development, this pervasive mindset has led to an unimaginative culture of copy-and-paste. Sadly, the majority of us Filipinos don't like creating or inventing new things. We would much rather see what the other guy is doing – and if it seems moderately successful, we default to flat-out photocopying or “Xeroxing” mode (a.k.a. a legalized piracy of business models).

The copier tries to be competitive in the best way he knows: by simply slashing prices down by 20%. This results in the degeneration of values, which forces a downward spiral and simply erodes what was initially created.

In a landscape of business monotony, the only way out and the only way through – both as an entrepreneur and as a country – is to embrace innovation. As is the mantra in my Business Innovations Class, “There is simply no choice in our world today but to innovate or die.”

Innovation

I am a staunch advocate of this philosophy, mindset, and phenomenon. It's simply because I believe that at the very core of me, it is what can and will drive our nation forward; whether in the context of the next great Filipino industry or a bold new way of tackling our nation's problems, from education to healthcare to livelihood.

Innovation is about solving problems which bring revolutionary value into the world. It's about leapfrogging from where we are to a trajectory that we previously thought unreachable. But more than that, innovation is the relentless power of ideas realized.

The act of creation is not the innovation itself. There has to be created value for something to be truly called innovative. But the bedrock of innovation is embracing a mindset that is both wide and askew.

Disciples of the Palo Alto innovation company IDEO will be familiar with the term vujà dé, the unknown sibling of déjà vu. Whereas déjà vu is the nagging feeling of something new seemingly and hauntingly familiar, vujà dé is quite the mind bend: it is looking at things you see everyday with entirely new eyes.

But more than vujà dé, our minds have to be open to a plethora of constantly fresh and new thinking. We have to fill-up ourselves with mind junk – stuff you might not use now or ever, but will always be on-call when your brain starts activating all creative and proverbial “Aha!” moments and deliveries.

It is this spirit of innovation and new, diverse thinking which gave birth to The WhyNot? Forum (http://www.whynotforum.com), a marketplace and an online movement to inspire Filipino ingenuity.

The Why Not? Forum is a smorgasbord of great, brave ideas and an open-source innovation soup. Hopefully, this will inspire other Filipinos to connect adjunct thoughts, take impactful action, and weave together new breakthrough ideas that redefine and challenge the status quo; all done in the spirit of positive change for the Philippines.

Hacking away to its very core, the WhyNot?Forum has a simple message to all Filipinos – ask, "Why not?". And in asking that simple question, we begin to unshackle ourselves from our limiting mindsets and transition into the WhyNot? philosophy: Think New Thoughts. Share Big Dreams. Do Brave Things.

What drives the WhyNot?Forum? It is using the word inspiring in "inspiring Filipino ingenuity" both as an adjective and as a verb.

Inspiring as an adjective because WhyNot? embraces an open-source spirit – online videos celebrating the great thoughts and actions of Filipinos and sharing these with the rest of the world.

Why Not? had filmmaker on the edge Quark Henares, alternative educator and RockEd Philippines founder Gang Badoy, the Mount Everest Philippine Women’s Team, creative guru Jim Paredes, education reform champion Fr. Jomar Legaspi, illusionist Erik Mana, animation advocate Grace Dimaranan, Dulaang Sibol’s Onofre “Mr. Pagsi” Pagsanghan, third-way Senator Kiko Pangilinan, Dakila Collective, and so on and so forth.

Inspiring as a verb because we want to do just that – inspire more Filipinos to churn out innovative ideas. With the advent of technology, the WhyNot?Forum democratizes access to great Filipino speakers. Now, any kid in a far-flung province with access to an Internet cafe can just log-on to the website, view the videos, make fresh connections, and come up with something new.

So be inspired and inspire with us. Spread the word about www.whynotforum.com and in doing so help us spark a thought revolution – a nation of Filipinos asking themselves a simple yet powerful question, "Why not?"

About the Author

Mark Joaquin Ruiz is an innovation junkie and a social business entrepreneur. His companies and organizations include MicroVentures [Hapinoy], Rags2Riches, InoventDesign, and The WhyNot?Forum. He is also a part-time faculty member in the Ateneo de Manila University, teaching a class on Business Innovation Management.