Welcome to The Contrarian’s Guide

The last 10 years have been crazy for me (for most everyone really). But personally and professionally, I could never have predicted or planned how the last 10 years have gone. I’ve learned a lot, and lately I’ve felt a desire to return to blogging (and yes that includes my random Lego pictures). I stopped seriously blogging about two years ago (although I still keep an active Tumblr), but blogging has been a special medium for me. Without it the last 10 years never would have ended up as well as they have. As a way of introducing this blog, I’d like to take you back over the last 10 years.

In 2004 I sold the skateboard shop I owned in Las Vegas. I left Las Vegas and moved back to Boise, ID. I joined a small marketing agency and became a partner. I started NewCommBiz, a moderately successful social media marketing blog. I went back to school and earned an MBA. I went corporate and joined HP as a Social Media Lead. I started TechBoise, a tech blog covering the small, local startup scene and held monthly events. I became the Entrepreneur In Residence at Highway 12 Ventures. I helped start The WaterCooler, a small business incubator. I moved to Seattle joining Waggener Edstrom, the second largest, independent, PR agency to help build their digital marketing practice. I then moved to London to lead their European digital activities. After a year in London, I moved back to Seattle and joined Amazon in a customer and product strategy role.

That’s a lot in 10 years and it doesn’t include the private consulting, the public speaking, the two failed attempts at startups, or my various board member roles. And let’s not forget my wife and three kids that have been with me the whole way (honestly couldn’t have done it without them). And those 10 years aren’t just filled with several job changes; there are at least three significant career changes. Who does that? Not normal people. But I’m not alone.

There are actually a lot of crazy people like me out there (hi guys). We don’t think or act like normal people. We bring a different perspective to life and work. We’re creative risk takers who aren’t interested in climbing corporate ladders, or job titles, or following well-established (but often counterproductive) processes. We fail — a lot. We break stuff, we cause friction, and when we’re at our best, we create new and better things.

In all of my roles, I was brought on to try something new, solve new problems, and build something new. I was hired because I had a different perspective, a unique skill set, a propensity to take risks and I wasn’t afraid to fail.

I’ve been called a lot of things: disruptor, change agent, argumentative, intimidating, idealistic, futurist, entrepreneur, intrepreneur, difficult to work with, and — my personal favorite — contrarian. But whatever you want to call people like me, we are innovators.

And lately it has become popular to hire people like us. When big companies want to infuse more innovation in their company, they often hire contrarians.

I’ve watched contrarians build amazing things on their own to solve problems only they recognize. Sometimes they succeed and build a great company, and sometimes they don’t and they move onto the next thing. I’ve seen contrarians brought into organizations and solve difficult problems no ones else was able to solve. Sometimes it works and they find great success inside companies and build great teams, and sometimes it fails and ends in frustration for everyone.

I’m starting this blog for three primary reasons.

• To help my fellow contrarians maximize the positive impact they can have.
• To help companies get better results running startup initiatives.
• And to help non-contrarians be more innovate.

I’m not going to claim I have all the answers, but I have an opinion and a lot of experience. I also hope you’ll join in the conversation here and contribute your experiences and wisdom.

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Originally published at tacanderson.com.