Reports are starting to emerge about innovation taking a hit due to budget cuts. This is a disturbing development.

As The New York Times reports, companies are struggling to stay afloat in the present, and the future is taking a backseat. Despite the economics, we have to keep an eye on the future.

Howard Lieberman, founder of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, tells the Times that "creative people don't care about the time or the season or the state of the economy; they just go out and do their thing."

The Institute has an inspiring motto from T.S. Eliot on its site: "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."