“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”– the late Steve Jobs
Steve Job’s words are enough to make anyone proud to be crazy. So next time someone rolls their eyes at you for thinking outside the box, stirring up the pot, or marching to the beat of your own drum…you just tell them, “call me crazy all you want. Steve Jobs would have called it genius!”
I have to admit, sometimes I feel like what we’re up to at WSA could qualify us as crazy. Setting out to design a new paradigm for our industry and business-at-large…I mean, what the heck does that mean, right? It definitely can leave you with more questions than answers, that’s for sure.
But here’s one thing I know for sure. If what we’re up to is creating a new model, then we better be “being” a demonstration of that new model. The tricky part is knowing what to do while we still figuring out what this new paradigm looks like. We have a better sense of what it’s not, than what it is, so in the meantime, until it all becomes clear, the only thing to do, is to not do what it is we’ve done before by rote or by habit. Literally, we are here asking ourselves every step of the way, “is what I’m doing in this moment something I’ve been conditioned to do? Am I doing it because it’s what everybody else is doing or because it’s what’s worked in the past? Or…am I actually being at cause and consciously creating in this moment?”
It’s a bold and sometimes lonely place to stand, but I’m certain that what lies ahead for all of us is far greater than anything we could ever imagine. It’s worth being cast as a little nutty when you’re up to something big, don’t you think? And you know what..it’s ok to not know “how” it’s all gonna play out. In fact, it’s really not our job to know. That’s what divine orchestration is all about!
Steve Jobs captured it perfectly when he said, “And no, we don’t know where it will lead. We just know there’s something much bigger than any of us here.”