How Taking a Chance on ‘Different’ Can Change Your Life

This morning, I pulled open my social media feeds only to find them inundated with Christopher Walken.

Don’t get me wrong, this was better than the coffee that went cold while I was reading, watching, commenting on and sharing the various incarnations of the ‘Walken Closet’ Kia ad. If you haven’t seen it yet — where have you been hiding?!— then do yourself a favour and check it out here.

I think we can see why this resonates. Sure, we might all now be more inclined to run out to buy the advertised Kia — honestly, and this isn’t a slight against Kia, but I don’t even remember the name of the car — but more importantly, we’re all thinking about what it means to wear beige socks, and that Christopher Walken doesn’t approve.

On some level, we all want to think of ourselves as innovative thinkers — most of us would be loathe to admit that we don’t really like to step outside our daily routines and comfort zones. Be honest, you know it’s true. When someone asks us if we’re brave, most of us would like to say ‘yes!’, even if that ‘yes’ is accompanied by a ‘depends on the situation’ or ‘maybe’. If we’re being honest, I think we’re more inclined to admit that we’d like to say that we would do the right thing no matter what, that we would be willing to take a risk.

Bear attacks you and your friend. What do you do? The answer you’d like to give: help your friend. How many of us are actually willing to say: I honestly don’t know, I hope I’d do the right thing but I don’t know how I’d react.

What does this have to do with beige socks and innovation?

Innovative thinkers aren’t people who like to think of themselves as ‘out of the box thinkers’ they actually are ‘out of the box thinkers’. They walk the walk that they talked about. Here’s the big one though: everyone can be an innovative thinker. It’s not some mysterious innate talent, it can be taught, learned and developed, you just have to be willing to take a chance on your imagination and creativity. Edward de Bono once said:

“Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits.”

This is where the beige socks come in. A beige sock is more likely to stay between the lines, follow the herd, and simply live. That’s fine, if that’s your cuppa tea, no one’s judging here. The…er…spotted sock is more likely to look at the line and step over it.

How many companies out there call themselves ‘innovative’ companies nowadays? How many actually are? Look at how Google broke the Internet paradigm. Hell, go back further:

“Video won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Daryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, commenting on television 1946

“What use could the company make of an electric toy?” — Western Union, turning down the rights to the telephone in 1878

And this, my personal favourite:

“The horse is here today, but the automobile is only a novelty — a fad.” — The President of Michigan Savings Bank advising against investing in the Ford Motor Company

My point is: every great invention, leap forward in social development, has come from someone thinking outside of the box. A lot of the time we considered their ideas insane and silly before they went forward. An ex-boyfriend of mine actually called Facebook a ‘passing fad that would be over in a few months, like MySpace’. Little did he know. And that’s the thing: little do we know.

Don’t be a beige sock. Think outside the box. Next time your boss or board of directors comes to you and tells you an idea you’ve presented is nuts, point out that Galileo said the the world was round when everyone knew it was flat: be the spotted sock in the drawer of beige, and take your world to the next level.