First, break all the rules.
I know, that’s the title of a book by Gallup that shares Don Clifton’s ideas. It was the first business book that I purchased at an airport. The title doesn’t refer to breaking the law: it’s about breaking all the rules of conventional wisdom.
I was reminded of it a couple of weeks ago. Photography is a cornerstone of Privie’s short- and mid-term goals. We want to showcase founders and their startups in their words, and hopefully, in gorgeous images too. For the first time in twenty years, I went out to the streets with a proper camera. This time, instead of my grandmother’s Nikon, I had my digital Fuji. Interacting with San Francisco as a photographer is a completely new experience. The camera opens doors, draws people in, and allows you to see the landscape with fresh eyes and from different perspectives. Literally: with a camera in hand, you can climb posts and stand on benches like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
And it is the most natural thing in the world, right until I “break the rules.” It’s a fresh memory so I remember it vividly. I’m standing on the corner of Market and Post. I look up and I see One Post Street, the building. It’s imposing, geometrical and gorgeous. A perfect photo. I approach the guard and let him know that I’m about to lie down on the street for a few seconds, just to capture the shot. He looks at me confused. “On the floor? Sure, suit yourself.” The floor is reddish, the tiles laid out perfectly. There’s not a trace of human poop, or any poop, or any yucky mess. Just a bit of regular sidewalk dirt. I lie down, look through the lens, and the image is not right. From this angle, the letters reading OnePost don’t show.
I know what I have to do. Right in front of me, glistening in the high noon sun, I spot the white steps that lead to the building’s entrance. They are impeccable: they show not a sign of feces, not a speck of dust. I look at the guard, I point towards the steps. He looks back at me, and nods wily. I calmly and swiftly climb up the six steps, position myself in the center, and lie down on the sparkling floor. I look through the lens: this is the shot. As I fix the aperture, a suited man runs out from inside. “Excuse me!”. Click, click, click. “Excuse me, it’s illegal for you to stay here. It’s forbidden.” I lower the exposure. Click, click, click. “Is it illegal to be on the sidewalk next to the building?” I think I got it.
“This is private property,” he replies. Except it’s not private property. It’s the sidewalk. This is a made up rule enforced by a menacing man who expects nobody will challenge his logic. I have my picture, so I go on with my day. Later I’ll learn through Google Maps that maybe Senator Feinstein’s office is there, as well as perhaps the Irish Embassy, so extra security might be pertinent. But the illegality of my actions still sounds made up.
People throw rules and protocols at us all the time, hoping we won’t question them. The status quo surrounds us and becomes eternal in our mind, as if it always was and always will be. I think I read in Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs about how the Apple founder would refer to our environment — roads, signs, lights — and note how everything we see was made by someone else. Things as we know them were thought out and planned by someone. All we need to do is think new thoughts and make new plans to add something new or to bring about change.
It’s not bringing change for the sake of it. It’s not being contrarian. That’s its own kind of prison. It’s imagining completely new scenarios, not just A vs. B but also R and v and 3. That’s the task of the idealist, of the entrepreneur, of the hero, and of the creator. That’s the promise of progress, of innovation, of art, and of science: not simply a better future, but a richer future. If we fight every rule for the sake of it, we end up with a world in conflict. If we imagine different rules that weren’t considered before, we end up with a complex, growing world that evolves and improves organically and inclusively, as biomes do. So dare to question the things that make little sense. Dare to see the landscape with fresh eyes and from different perspectives.
“Thinking outside the box” doesn’t quite express what I mean. “Imagine more?” “Dream with your eyes open?” Ugh. “Visualize and realize?” No.
Think different. Yep, it still does it.
