Rule Breakers

My children went to the local public school. The school teaches the way it has been doing for, maybe, over fifty years. The tools may have changed. The methods are the same. Most parents are familiar with how the school works; know the teachers and several other parents. They are part of the same clan.

Next town over, there is another school and a different clan. It is an older town. Similar practices, just older.

Isn’t this how most large organizations work?

Microsoft, Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle), Facebook, Google, and many more began as no-rules startups. A few entrepreneurs took big swipes. Members of the original teams are long gone. Working there now is the same routine every day. Job security is reassuring. Complacency sets in.

Ask yourself, “Am I part of an organization focused on holding the status quo? Or, Is this a place where I can do the “cannot be done?”

It is not just the business world. It could be a pursuit for freedom (Gandhi), or solving an everyday problem (Uber).

Most of us want to “fit in.” History is made by rule breakers who have the doggedness to do things that others say cannot be done.

They know how to get out of the so-called “Jams.”