Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

By acknowledging its most serious problems, he made it harder for investors to generate their own ideas about what was wrong with the company. And as they found themselves thinking hard to identify other concerns, they decided Babble’s problems weren’t actually that severe.

“But products don’t create value. Customers do.”

it’s foolish to think the person who’s first can work it all out,” Gladwell remarked.

Instead of getting mired in the tunnel vision of your imagination, by looking out into the world you improve the acuity of your peripheral vision.

Sprinting is a fine strategy for a young genius, but becoming an old master requires the patience of experimentation to run a marathon. Both are paths to creativity. Yet for those of us who aren’t struck by a bolt of insight, slow and steady experimentation can light the way to a longer stretch of originality.

Researchers Debra Meyerson and Maureen Scully have found that to succeed, originals must often become tempered radicals. They believe in values that depart from traditions and ideas that go against the grain, yet

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” philosopher George Santayana wrote.

When we shift our emphasis from behavior to character, people evaluate choices differently.

If we want to understand how to manage fear, we don’t have to threaten people’s lives; we need only threaten to put them on stage.

The hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring whether a better option exists. I’ve spent more than a decade studying this, and it turns out to be far less difficult than I expected.