Seeking Novelty. A Receipe for Innovation & Personal Growth
Insights from Gus Balbontin, featured speaker at the Cultivate and Connect Conference 2024
What does it take to thrive in a world that won’t stop changing? According to entrepreneur, investor, and former Lonely Planet Executive Director Gus Balbontin, the answer lies in one deceptively simple habit: seeking novelty.
Gus brought his trademark energy and candour to the Cultivate and Connect Conference in 2024, delivering a presentation that left attendees rethinking how they approach their careers, their businesses, and their lives.
From Patagonia to the World Stage
Gus’s story is one of relentless reinvention. Growing up in a remote corner of Patagonia with limited opportunities, he earned a scholarship at 17 that brought him to Australia, navigating visa hurdles, cultural barriers, and a new language along the way. By 22, he had dropped out of university, hitchhiked across South America, launched his first business, and landed a role at Lonely Planet by creatively enhancing his CV.
Over the next 15 years, he rose from Junior Designer to Executive Director, leading global operations, heading up innovation, and working on early iPhone development, e-books, and App Store innovations. He has since moved into investing and mentoring through the Unrealistic Foundation, backing companies reimagining the future of education.
The Case for Novelty
The central argument of Gus’s talk was straightforward but powerful: novelty is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Deliberately seeking out new experiences, skills, and challenges keeps the brain plastic, builds tolerance for uncertainty, and unlocks creative thinking that comfort and routine simply can’t produce.
He drew on his own life to illustrate the point. Learning to sail, picking up photography, immersing himself in unfamiliar cultures not as hobbies, but as deliberate investments in his own adaptability.
Adaptability Over Intelligence
Gus challenged the idea that success belongs to the strongest or the smartest. In a fast-moving world, he argues, it belongs to those most willing to change. He introduced a practical model for thinking about innovation distinguishing between Business as Usual (BAU), continuous improvement, and radical future thinking with the important reminder that today’s bold innovation is tomorrow’s BAU. Standing still is falling behind.
Resourcefulness as a Superpower
Another thread running through the talk was resourcefulness. Gus pushed back on the notion that innovation requires abundant resources. True innovation, he argued, comes from creative problem-solving within constraints and building that muscle starts with how we educate ourselves and our teams. His own teaching philosophy champions unlearning as much as learning, and reapplying knowledge in new contexts to build genuine adaptability.
Connection Drives It All Forward
Gus closed with a reminder that none of this happens in isolation. Innovation accelerates when people share ideas, challenge each other, and build communities of practice. It was a fitting message for a conference designed to do exactly that.
Every year our conferences brings together exceptional speakers with real-world stories and practical ideas you can take straight back to your business. This is just one of the many benefits of being a shareholder with us.
