“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” -Steve Jobs

First of all, did you get as much of a kick out of seeing Steve with dark hair in the above video as I did?

This Steve Jobs quote on innovation, as is many things that he has said and done, has the potential to change the very way that you approach your outlook on your job, schooling, or even life in general.

Let’s go even further with this thought.

Not only are you just as smart as these other folks and can build your own things. This equal (or greater) intelligence also means that you can improve upon what others have already invented and created.

Picasso had a quote that I’ve written down in many places that “Good artists copy, but great artists steal.” Steve Jobs obviously agreed with Picasso. Think about that for a second. Anyone can copy what someone else did. That may give you some success. Look at all of the smartphones out there. The dozens of Android phones essentially are copying each other (and the original one essentially copied the iPhone). Same scenario with PC’s since the early years. Add more memory, bigger hard drives, faster processors, and make more money.

How do you disrupt the system? Don’t just copy what others are doing. Take what they’re doing, and make it better.

The Obligatory Apple Example

Steve Jobs and Apple are obviously a great example of this. They they took the phone, a technology which has existed for quite some time and evolved into the cell phone, which evolved into the first iterations of the smart phone. But nothing had ever turned heads like the iPhone. Apple took a product they’d never touched before, and approached it from a different angle. Boom.

Same story with the iPod. Music consumption had evolved over time from records to cassettes to CDs and even to mp3 players. Yet, the way that they approached mp3 players in a new, innovative, and different angle revolutionized the market. Same story with iTunes. Potentially the same story with their rumored entry into the TV market.

A Less Common Example

When you look at institutions, ideas, and products that have existed for many many years, don’t be frozen by the idea that it has reached its full potential as it is. When you look at physical items–buildings, modes of transportation, etc.–they are constantly changing and being improved. Why? Because people realize that it can always be done better. This concept is often overlooked when it comes to much larger issues like government, education, or even the way in which we sell our products. Sure, there are barriers in place that create friction that makes it pretty difficult to create any significant change in some of these areas, but that means there’s all the more reason for it to be approached in a radical and innovative manner.

So, I challenge you to begin trying to cultivate the mindset that existing products and ideas are, by default, lacking. Inefficiencies create opportunities, which means you need to step up to the plate and create something new. Don’t settle for copying ideas. Steal them. Improve upon them. We, and you, will be better off because of it.

Hat tip to Gizmodo for posting this video.

Pixar broke new technological ground when they released the first Toy Story movie. Moviegoers were amazed not only by the computerized animation used in the movie, but were also enchanted by the unique story to go along with it. After raking in $360 million in revenue, they could have easily sat back and took it easy on their next go around. Instead, they created A Bug’s Life, which brought in about $1.5 million more in revenues than Toy Story did.

26 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes, and 3 Grammy’s later, Pixar hasn’t taken a single movie “off” and continues to wow viewers of all ages.

In the book Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis runs into a problem when one of his colleagues goes out of his way to take credit for a new type of bond that Michael Lewis came up with that ends up making the company a great deal of money. He ends up getting all of the praise at the time, while Lewis has to sit back and wonder how all of this happened. The problem was that the next time the company was in a pinch, they looked to the deceitful colleague and he didn’t have any bright ideas–Lewis did.

You can fake your way to success once, but it’s pretty tough to replicate.

So, you basically have two options…

Wait around until you get lucky and succeed, and then ride that wave of success as long as it will take you.

Or, bust your tail over and over again to prove that your success isn’t a fluke–it was a result of your hard effort and desire to succeed.

The choice is yours…what’s it going to be?

And that’s all I have to say about that.

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” – Fight Club

Imagine a fresh start. Maybe it’s a fresh start for your company or brand that you endorse. Maybe it’s your blog. Heck, maybe it’s a relationship with a friend. Usually there are all sorts of barriers that prevent us from making changes.

You can’t change something about your product because you have millions of dollars already invested in the direction it’s heading right now. You can’t change the direction of your business because your investors will be calling for your head.

So just imagine you have a blank slate. You’re free to do anything. What’s it going to be?

Use what I think of as the scale-it-back technique. Think of anything, no matter how crazy it is, and then scale it back. Reconcile it with reality and think about how you can nudge it in that direction.

Because how are we going to move forward if we let a barrier stand in our way?

Image by Calsidyrose

It’s been a while since I graced you with a video, so here ya go! It’s a short, three minute one, so don’t be afraid. It beats reading 5 paragraphs and hopefully I’m relatively easy on the eyes.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Note: The quote is actually not from the book Alice in Wonderland, rather one of Lewis Carrol’s other works, Through the Looking Glass.

In school, we’re taught that the smartest people are the ones who make the fewest mistakes.

In reality, some of the smartest people are the ones who have made hundreds of mistakes.

If you or your company aren’t making mistakes, then you’re not trying hard enough.

If you believe the same things you believed 10 years ago…I’d question why?

Take chances. Make mistakes. Evolve your intellect. How else do you plan on moving forward?

“If you’re still being right about the same shit you were right about 20 years ago, then something tells me you’re either not thinking or you’re just moving papers as product. The whole point of intellectual activity is to come to new conclusions. I don’t see how one can think and keep coming up with the same conclusion…” Neuroscientist Vincent Walsh

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” - Albert Einstein

If you’re reading this blog, you probably make it a point to learn on a regular basis. You read books, blogs, and tweets like it’s your job. You can’t get enough new information. You’re too busy and too mature to waste time imagining.

When you were young, the last thing you wanted to do was learn (if you were a “normal” kid, hehe). You’d much rather build a fort or play dress up than do your multiplication tables.

It’s interesting how this changes.

The thing is, nobody made a name for themselves by learning more than everyone else. Your potential is limited if your goals are based on your knowledge because there’s only a finite amount of information you can learn.

The way you make a difference in this world is by imagining. Thinking of things that don’t even exist yet.

So next time you’re looking at your Google Reader or list of articles you want to read (even if The Curbside Marketer is one of them), don’t read them. Use that time to imagine. To create. Free yourself from the limits that intellect places on you and enjoy the freedom of imagination.

Enjoy.

Photo from Stanley

Our culture has turned us largely into people who look to others to determine what our own opinions are. For a movie that is coming out, we look to the movie critics or Rotten Tomatoes to determine whether or not it’s good (even after we see the movie sometimes). We watch SportsCenter to tell us who we should start in our fantasy football leagues. We read business blogs to help us determine our opinions on various topics like sponsored tweets, blogs, and videos. You get the point.

So we’re pretty much hardwired in certain parts of our lives to look to others for advice on what we should think. Wait, what? Our culture is teaching us to not think for ourselves? Your first reaction, like mine, is probably, “Man, we’re lazy, we shouldn’t rely on the opinions of others so much.” You’re right, sort of.

THE GOOD

Even though it sounds like we’re taking the easy way out by simply using the original thoughts of others, the truth is that it is efficient. In the most simplified form, we have two options: 1) spend time learning about the topic ourselves or 2) use what others have learned to learn about the topic ourselves. When you look at it this way, option 2 is definitely more attractive when you consider the value of time.

Using this method, we’re able to avoid trying out every product we’re considering buying and weighing them all against each other, and just look at the reviews online to see which are the best.

Then, there are times where experts really know a LOT more than we’ll ever know on our own about a topic. These experts graciously share their knowledge so that we can benefit from it without putting in all of the hard work that they did. This is precisely why I look to Ramit Sethi for advice on personal finance.

THE BAD

There are some times when using the ideas of others as our crutch hurts us. You have to be careful whose thoughts you’re relying on and ensure that they truly do know what they’re talking about. I like using extreme hypothetical situations to prove points, so an example would be asking a polar bear what hotel you should stay at in Egypt. Dumb idea.

THE UGLY

The really scary thing about relying on the ideas of others is the potential that we get so caught up in using the ideas and knowledge of others that we forget to think of new, innovative ideas on our own. Yes, it’s unlikely we get to the point where nobody focuses on creating new ideas and everyone relies on the ideas of others (because that would obviously eventually result in a stagnant era in idea generation), but if this even happens on a smaller scale, it could be harmful.

Marketers could get too caught up studying the “best practices” of others and forget about finding the next new medium to market their product through. Product engineers could get caught up mimicking old designs and forget about true “innovations.”

The way you differentiate your company/product and become an industry leader isn’t by relying on the thought leadership or best practices of others, it’s by thinking of innovative new ideas and implementing them.

THE VERDICT

There’s arguments on both sides of this, and I’m going to take the easy way out and say the best option is for you to use a mixture of relying on others and thinking for yourself. “Shortcuts” like reading blogs of industry professionals to give you a better understanding of a topic are great ways to save time and develop a solid foundation on which you can begin to build your own opinions and ideas.

So, what do you think? Is society moving towards one that can’t think for themselves? Do you rely too much on the opinions of others? Join me in The Curbside comments below to discuss!

From Flickr User Dr Case