Jim Clifton, CEO of the polling firm Gallup, laments the resources the U.S. devotes to identifying and training elite football and basketball players, while failing to scout the next Steve Jobs.
Why it matters: Society apportions much effort to identifying geniuses of almost every type — athletes, intellects, musicians. An exception is "super builders," Clifton says, by which he means the few individuals responsible for our biggest practical companies.
"There may be 400,000 Steve Jobses, but we don't have any idea who they are. But imagine if they were point guards. We would be all over them."— Jim Clifton
What's going on: Clifton, author of a new book called "Born to Build," tells Axios that Gallup has developed a test to do precisely that — one that "identifies alpha males and females." He calls it a "Builders Assessment."
The difference between innovators and builders, according to Clifton: Silicon Valley and similar innovation hubs around the world are ecosystems for invention, and push out the occasional exceptional company. But, "innovation is what they do at DARPA," the Pentagon's radical invention lab, says Clifton. "Builders are the Bill Gateses and IBMs that built everything up."
