Gears. Bearings. Conveyors. Drainage systems. Plumbing fixtures. Not what you first think of when it comes to innovation - but areas that maybe even more affected by innovation that all those tech companies that we normally think about.

Why? Because while we often associate coming up with a new idea as the hard part of innovation, transforming existing industries can be even harder.

It’s the real world for most of us.

Today’s guest, Todd Adams, is the CEO of Rexnord, one of the real world companies driving innovation across several different industries. But like many successful leaders, he never imagined himself in that role. As he revealed during our conversation:

“I never aspired to be CEO. I wanted to contribute to the success of an organization and learn along the way”

Whether you want to be a CEO or not, Todd has some great advice about how you should go about any opportunity.

“Make sure you want to do things for the right reason. People sometimes aspire to roles because they want the title, the recognition, the money...but you actually have to love the job”

If you take away one piece of career advice from all the episodes we’ve done so far, that might just be the best.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!!