Incompatible Or Original?

Everyone wants the answer to this one question: why and how do certain individuals come up with great ideas?

It’s hard not to admit that we’re all (still) fascinated with how Steve Jobs accomplished everything that he did. Back in 2010, I published an article titled, Incompatible, that was focused on a Bloomberg TV documentary titled, Bloomberg Game Changers: Steve Jobs. Here’s what I wrote back in 2010: There’s no doubt that Jobs is an iconoclast, but what really struck me was when someone described him as “incompatible,” and pushed it further by saying that’s what makes him so unique, special and creative. Guy Kawasaki went on to say that Jobs is so different from most other people, that getting him to even think like everybody else would be like trying to explain to a fish what it is to fly. Incompatible. What a term.

Do you have to be that different to get results? 

It’s amazing that these “leaders” seem to be – for the most part – lone thinkers. People who spend an enormous amount of time, researching, dreaming and creating. My friend, Adam Grant, is also fascinated with people like this. Adam is a top-rated Wharton Professor who wrote an incredible business book called, Give And Take, all about how giving (in a truly unselfish way) is directly correlated to an individual’s long-term success. His latest book is titled, Originals, and it looks at how the best ideas come from unconventional thinking by non-conforming individuals, and why that combination is both so surprising and has such staggering (and life altering) results. Adam presented his latest thinking on Originals at this past year’s TED conference. His very clever fifteen minute presentation was just posted online.

Watch this: Adam Grant – The surprising habits of original thinkers.