Would you work to bring an end to your own profession?

Truly innovating means challenging models that work. It means questioning established processes. It means unsettling your own comfort zone. It means risking the destruction of today’s business in the name of something still taking shape. To many, this seems contradictory. To those committed to the future, it is simply the natural path.

The essence of innovation lies not only in improving what already exists, but in imagining what has not yet been done — even if that means making entire structures obsolete. Major transformations begin this way: when someone decides the world no longer needs what is already there. And this is where the silent paradox faced by many professionals in product, technology, strategy and even traditional businesses comes in.

It is not a comfortable position. It requires clarity, detachment and a healthy dose of rebelliousness. Innovation professionals must be willing to acknowledge that the current model, however efficient, may not survive the next turn. They must work every day to build a tomorrow that will inevitably devalue yesterday — and that includes their own work today.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle to innovation lies in the incentive system that dominates many organizations. Companies say they want change — but reward repetition. They praise innovation — but promote those who preserve current margins. In practice, the risk of proposing something truly new is usually greater than the risk of maintaining what already exists. And this is how many good ideas die before they even gain momentum.

It is common to see product teams excited about the future run into departments that measure only the present. Teams that could reinvent entire journeys are forced to preserve outdated metrics. When innovation is threatening, it is seen more as a problem than a solution.

Real disruption is not measured in short cycles, nor does it fit easily into schedules of immediate deliverables. It demands patience, persistence and a vision of the future that often extends beyond the tenure of those in charge. The problem is that the system values what yields returns now, rather than what transforms tomorrow. And that stifles the courage of those who want to propose something big.

Companies that understand this do not merely survive; they lead. Institutions investing in Open Finance recognize that data belongs to customers — and that they have a responsibility to offer genuinely good, integrated experiences.

Industries investing in new materials know they may leave their current products behind. Platforms that automate manual tasks are redesigning the roles of thousands of professionals — including those who implement them. They do this because they know that if they do not lead the transition, someone else will.

The history of innovation is full of such cases. Ultimately, innovating is a form of farewell. It means saying goodbye to an old version of ourselves in the name of a new possibility. It is an exercise in professional humility and detachment that forces us to ask, every day, whether what we do still makes sense.

If your answer to this article’s title is yes, perhaps you are exactly where you should be.

📌 Originally published in Época Negócios