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The world keeps trying to sort us into neat little groups.
People who think like us, vote like us, work like us, and live like us.
The problem is that a world full of people who agree with you is a world where we make very little progress.
We've convinced ourselves that disagreement is dangerous and different perspectives are threats to be eliminated rather than important ingredients for an interesting world.
And that approach is killing more than just civil discourse. It's killing entrepreneurship.
Every breakthrough idea started with someone who thought differently or looked at the accepted way of doing things and said, "What if we tried something else?"
Those people weren't usually the obvious candidates to solve the problem. They weren't always the business school graduates or folks coming out of Y-combinator.
Sometimes they were the artists who saw patterns that other people missed. Former musicians who understood rhythm in a way that translated to a better user experience. The punk rockers who inspired a generation to question whether things had to stay the same.
The people building tomorrow's brightest and most important companies aren't just studying Elon and Bezos. They're likely pulling inspiration from places many of us would never even think to look.
A chef's approach to food, seen on Chef’s Table, might inspire a CEO to structure their team in a new way. A comedian's poor timing might teach you something about why your last product launch failed. A graffiti artist's rebellion against a city wall might inspire you to consider a different approach to marketing.
But I fear we're on the brink of losing this important cross-pollination. We're building walls between different types of people instead of bridges.
When everyone thinks the same way, you get the same old boring stuff. When everyone follows the same path, you get a bunch of people standing around in the same place. And when everyone agrees, nobody learns anything new.
The next startup that changes everything won't come from a room full of people nodding at each other like a bunch of robots. It'll come from a room where someone says, "That's interesting, but what if we flipped it completely upside down?"
And it’s even bigger than business. It's about life.
People who challenge your thinking make you sharper. The ones who see the world differently force you to expand how you view uncomfortable ideas. The ones who drive you a little crazy often teach you the most.
We don't need to agree with everyone, and we certainly don't need to like everyone. There is so much in today’s modern world that I disagree with. Stuff that makes me sad and angry, trepidatious and hopeless. But we need different viewpoints to exist.
The world needs rebels and rule-followers, dreamers and realists, artists and accountants, punk rockers and buttoned-up executives.
Because innovation happens at the intersection of different ideas, and progress comes from friction, not agreement.
Perhaps instead of trying to eliminate people who think differently, we should be grateful they're around.
They're not just keeping art and music alive.
They're keeping the future possible.
What’s your take on today’s topic? Do you agree, disagree, or is there something I missed?
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Excellent! Also, the “reverse” happened with the creation of Motown. Barry Gordy applied his experience from his work at Ford (what he learned their structure/process/systems) to impact music via Motown. Per “Hitsville” movie/documentary.
This is so perfectly said and even more perfectly timed - by far my favorite post of yours to this point!
Thanks for writing this one Justin! Keep spreading the good word.....