Categories: Articles

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.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.