5 Ways to Become an Original and Change the World

Key takeaways from Adam Grant’s best-seller “Originals”

Jude Gingo
Jul 27, 2017 · 7 min read

I’ve heard many people claim that they want to make a difference in the world, that they want to be creators and doers. They throw around the term “entrepreneur” so frequently that it is now in vogue. But as much as they enjoy discussing their sky-high aspirations, they neglect to take any action.

Why?

Because most people don’t fully understand or appreciate what it takes to change the world.

In order to change the world, one must provide value. Value is a product of scarcity, and in order to create scarcity, one must do something different. As Adam Grant puts it, one must become an Original.

What follows are 5 key steps to becoming an Original, as articulated by Adam Grant in his best-seller Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World:

1) Reject the default

“The hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring whether a better option exists.” — Adam Grant

I think it goes without saying that in order to become an Original, you have to do things differently. You must be willing and able to critically examine the current state of the world, reject the status quo, and imagine a better future for society.

Consider the inception of Southwest Airlines. In the early 2000s, Herb Kelleher noticed that the current state of the American transportation industry was too expensive for the Average American Joe and neglected to meet the needs of this cost-conscious consumer. Rather than accept this reality as fixed, he, alongside Rollin King, decided to usurp the industry and create a low-cost airline that met the needs of this previously ignored group of prospective fliers.

Today, Southwest is a $35B airline that has successfully disrupted the transportation industry and developed one of the best customer service arms of any airline in history.

By rejecting the default, Herb Kelleher was able to revolutionize the transportation industry and become an Original.

2) Do a lot of work

“If you want to be original, the most important possible thing you could do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.” — Ira Glass

Most people are not innately talented or gifted at something. It takes thousands of hours of practice (many including Malcolm Gladwell argue 10,000 hours) and countless iterations to hone one’s skills and become an expert.

For example, before The Beatles became an international musical sensation, they started off performing at numerous clubs in Hamburg, Germany during the early 1960s. During this period, they had the opportunity to practice on stage hundreds of times, test out and develop their performance skills, and ultimately BECOME a great band. It took a long time and a lot effort, but as they experimented and improved, they got better and better!

In 1988, well after becoming the best-selling band in history, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are now widely considered the most influential band of the rock era.

By constantly practicing and experimenting, the band members of The Beatles were able to transform the musical era and become Originals.

3) Allow yourself to procrastinate

“Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, but it can be a resource for creativity.” — Adam Grant

Time and time again, I find myself discovering articles online sharing productivity hacks and various ways to become a more efficient worker, including the elimination of any and all forms of procrastination. However, this may come at a steep cost: mainly your creativity.

Procrastination allows you to stop mid-task and occupy yourself with a more “fun” activity, but subconsciously, your mind continues to think about the initial task in an open-ended and fluid manner. You begin to imagine ideas and solutions to problems that you might never have considered if you simply finished the task in one sitting. Said another way, you become more creative.

One salient example that Adam Grant offers is that of Martin Luther King, Jr. The night prior to his iconic speech at the Lincoln Memorial, MLK Jr. had an incomplete speech lying in front of him. This was quite possibly the most important moment of his life, and yet he had delayed and procrastinated writing a speech that he would eventually deliver to over a quarter million civil rights supporters.

In fact, up until the very moments before his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, MLK Jr. was still scribbling revisions on his hand-written notes! And it wasn’t until he was at the podium delivering the speech that he, after being encouraged by a woman standing behind him, added contemporaneously and in improvised fashion his famous “I Have a Dream” sequence.

The March on Washington and King’s speech eventually led to the passage of significant civil rights legislation in America. They mark a pivotal point in American history that would not have happened if MLK Jr. had simply written the speech ahead of time and moved on.

By allowing himself to procrastinate and consider all possible articulations of his beliefs, MLK Jr. was able to deliver one of the most powerful and well-known speeches in history and become an Original.

4) Take calculated risks

“If you aren’t experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: you are being driven by the desire to avoid it.” — Ed Catmull

Most people believe that in order to be a successful entrepreneur, one must throw all caution to the wind, embrace risk, and simply wish for the best. If things go great, awesome! If not, you’re screwed…

However, this is not in fact the case.

Rather, many founders are more risk-averse than the average person. By “balancing their life’s risk-portfolio” as Adam Grant puts it (perhaps by starting up their business while remaining in school or with their current job), founders are able to take risks, fail, and learn without putting their entire livelihood at risk. And consequently, they can try again.

The three Warby Parker founders did just that. For six months, they remained in school, working on their company for selling glasses online on the side. At the time, the general populace was not yet comfortable with and was skeptical of purchasing glasses online, given individuals could not try on pairs before buying them.

The founders brainstormed countless solutions and eventually decided to allow customers to try on five frames at home for free BEFORE buying a pair of glasses. This was enough to convince consumers to shop for glasses online, and within three weeks, Warby Parker reached its full first-year revenue targets. And once it was abundantly clear that the company would survive and in fact thrive, THEN the founders dropped out of school and embraced this calling full-time.

By taking calculated risks and learning from their mistakes, the Warby Parker founders made glasses both stylish and affordable and were able to become Originals.

5) Be a tempered radical

“The most promising ideas begin from novelty and then add familiarity.” — Adam Grant

Most Originals start off with a radical or crazy thought. Their ideas are extreme, non-conformist, and off-putting to the general populace. In order to win over more mainstream audiences, these individuals must tone down their language and ideals by becoming tempered radicals.

Why do you think so many start-ups like to frame what their company does in terms of other successful ones? For example, how many Ubers of [insert random on-demand business] have you heard of in the past few years?

The answer is that the founders want to de-radicalize and de-risk their ideas so that the ideas can be accepted by the everyday consumer or investor.

Consider The Lion King, a Disney classic that eventually became the highest grossing film of 1994. When it was originally pitched to the Disney executives, it was rejected outright because the executives simply didn’t understand it. Up until this point, Disney had never made a film based on an original concept, and so the executives had no incentive to fund it. It was too risky!

But during a second meeting, after CEO Michael Eisner attempted to make sense of the film by framing it as a King Lear (one of Shakespeare’s plays), one of the producers spoke up, comparing the movie instead to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. At that moment, all the Disney executives immediately understood the concept. The Lion King was just Hamlet with lions! And consequently the movie was approved.

That is exactly what Originals like the writers at The Lion King, an animated Hamlet with lions, or even the founders at Instacart, the Uber of grocery delivery, do. They make a radical idea seem ordinary by promising something new in terms of a familiar concept.

By embracing the tenants of tempered radicalism by framing their new idea in terms of something familiar, the The Lion King creators were able to become Originals.

This is only the tip of the iceberg

“Actions speak louder than words.” — Abraham Lincoln

Adam Grant conveys in his book that in order to truly be an Original, one must be a visionary whose creative and ambitious thinking, in combination with tireless perseverance, coalesces into an idea or product that can change the world.

Put another way, one must:

  1. Reject the default
  2. Do a lot of work
  3. Allow oneself to procrastinate
  4. Take calculated risks
  5. Be a tempered radical

These 5 takeaways are certainly not all that can be gleaned from reading Adam Grant’s Originals, but rather just a small collection of lessons that resonated particularly with me. I highly encourage anyone looking to become an Original to read this 5-star book!

And if you are looking for other book recommendations, please consider the following:

Jude Gingo

To learn more about the habits of original thinkers from Adam Grant himself, check out the following short video:

Jude Gingo

Written by

BA @McKinsey, finance and computer science @WashU, avid reader, exercise enthusiast.

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