Seth Godin recently wrote about the danger of doing things within reason.
"Within reason means, 'without bothering the boss, without taking a big risk, without taking the blame if we fail . . . be reasonable!' And so you do it half-heartedly and you fail. And who beats you? The people who did it without reason."
Most people would agree with most of the ideas on this blog, as long as you don't take them too far. It is fine to build on your strengths . . . within reason. It is good to embrace your weaknesses . . . within reason. Go ahead and pursue your passion . . . within reason. Be yourself . . . within reason.
But that is the problem. My point is that you need to go even farther. You need to go farther in the direction that everyone is telling you not to go in.
The freak factor is about being unreasonable, about doing things "without reason." If you can avoid the trap of doing things "within reason," then you dramatically increase your chances for success.
Next time someone encourages you to be reasonable, just realize that they are really asking you to be normal, average, mediocre and unremarkable. In other words, they are being unreasonable.
* If you want to create career success without reason, you can read my free eBook, The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness.
* If you want to find out how to motivate employees without reason, you can check out my free eBook, The Freak Factory: Making Employeees Better by Helping Them Get Worse.
Hey there ~ I'm enjoying your blog and tried to subscribe, but I'm having an issue with feedburner from this site... wanted to let you know, and also see whether you have any suggestions?
Posted by: briana | December 11, 2009 at 07:45 PM