As technology progresses at an exponential rate, we tend to focus on the breakthroughs while ignoring the motivations that inspired them. But many of these recent developments have had a very common narrative: the brilliant people who invented them did so by breaking the rules. Of course, rules are in place to help guide and protect us, and blatant disregard for them is rarely worthwhile; but in many situations, new discoveries are only made when people reach beyond the boundaries that have been placed around them.
Throughout history it’s been game changers like Salvador Dalhi, Isaac Newton, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, and even that kid who somehow still runs Facebook, who have sent progress in a new, unforeseen direction. These people architected their own realities and found new possibilities as a result. Their work has contributed to the comfortable, modern society we all love and enjoy today.
Some of my favorite examples of misbehavior happened in the tech industry over the past few decades:
Jack Welch took over management for GE in 1999. His aggressive firing policy and insistence on informality in the workplace brought the company value up from $12Bn to $280Bn.
Jeff Bezos lead Amazon through the dot com bubble burst of the nineties, making them the leading online marketplace. But instead of sticking with their success in retail, Amazon now has it’s hands in a variety of different industries, including technology and development.
Julian Assange took the world (and specifically the U.S. government) by surprise when he created Wikileaks and began disseminating our most carefully guarded secrets. Whether hero or villain, his methods heralded a new era for transparency and availability of information.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, besides founding Google, released the Android operating system under open source license, completely free of charge. This coincided with their Open Handset Alliance initiative that drastically changed the mobile landscape over the past few years.
Netflix co-founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph shook up the moving pictures industry when they brought instant, on-demand video rentals to the masses – a sales vector the likes of Blockbuster, Amazon, Hulu, Redbox, and many others had been pursuing for years.
ASUS was founded by a few talented individuals – mostly ex-employees from Acer – but it was CEO Jonney Shih who brought the company from an unknown parts manufacturer to a leading name in household and business electronics products. They were one of the original, core contributors to the Android Open Source Project, and recently released one of Google’s highest profile tablets yet – the Nexus 7. Many electronic parts manufacturers could have been as good as ASUS, but it was Shih’s persistence in developing their own brand of consumer products that lead to their rise.
The bottom line is that, throughout history, especially in the tech sector, we’ve seen a recurring theme that misbehavior – or breaking out of industry expectations – often leads to innovation. At Prolific Interactive, we strive to keep ideas fresh, and part of that means doing things in our own, unique ways. Whether in crunch time at the office, or choosing what to mix into your next cocktail, I challenge you to follow your instincts, show your art, take some risks, and for innovation’s sake: misbehave!
