Everyone thinks they're innovative. That they have the answer. Everyone's kid is a genius. Or the next Gerber baby. Or, if you've ever watched American Idol's audition shows, anyone can be the next superstar.

Obviously that's almost never true. But our capacity for self-delusion is infinite. We cling to our sense of self-importance as if it's all that separates us from the abyss: We only matter if we matter a lot.

But I digress…

To get myself fired up, I searched for Steve Jobs quotes online – I mean, he knew a little something about innovation, right? There was some good stuff there, to be sure, but nothing that struck the flint just right. No spark whatsoever.

Then I picked up the phone to call some of my usual sources.

"Innovation?" the first guy nearly laughed me off the line. "It's insurance! There's no such thing."

That was my last call.

Then I thought of old Henry Ford, who once said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'faster horses.'"

And that's when it clicked: Innovation is what we don't see. Or what we see but don't quite believe yet. It's impossible before it isn't. (Click to tweet.)

It's coming up with that car when everyone's happy galloping along. Or dreaming up paper and the printing press – a pair of breakthroughs that literally changed, then wrote, history. Or launching a smartphone in a Blackberry world. The iPhone was a joke before it was the standard.

I've been covering this business for more than 10 years now, and I feel like all we talk about is selling and health care reform. We praise the same heroes, denounce the same demons and effuse endlessly about how differently we all do the same things.

So while the challenge of finding things to call innovative seemed daunting at first, it also felt like a breath of fresh air.

So far, I've found a tech giant (speaking of Steve Jobs) dying to transform this industry. Hell, he might fail. But he's trying.

I've found a young woman who left the quiet comfort of the Midwest (Go Mizzou!) to put a shingle out on her own business in the Big Apple, of all places. (If she can make it there….) And it's working. She's taking chances, shooting "how to" videos for clients and competitors alike. All while running an industry association, already committed to the next generation of brokers.

I've also been lucky enough to spend time with members of the Vanguard Council, a group of professionals sick and tired of the status quo.

Which, I suppose, is what brings me back to Apple. In case you missed it because the new macho-sized iPhones got in your way, or because you're still star struck (or annoyed to distraction), the tech darling's entered the health/wellness business with the launch of their own health app and Healthkit.

"The new Health app gives you an easy-to-read dashboard of your health and tness data," their website reads. "And we've created a new tool for developers called HealthKit, which allows all the incredible health and fitness apps to work together, and work harder, for you.

They've apparently been working with the Mayo Clinic for months, but is it enough for them to succeed where both Google and Microsoft have failed? Consider this: Microsoft introduced the first table computer nearly a decade before Apple's first iPad announcement. Which one do we remember?