Now Reading | Malcolm Gladwell on What Really Makes People Disruptive.
http://www.inc.com/jill-krasny/malcolm-gladwell-on-the-one-character-trait-that-makes-people-disruptive.html?cid=ps002ros
This little article from Inc. got my attention today. The byline said: The best-selling author says it’s not tech, money, or brainpower. Successful disrupters all tend to have one huge precondition that’s far more important.
I had a hunch but I wanted to know what it was.
According to Gladwell, it’s all about attitude and heart. He frames it up this way:
The beauty of being disagreeable.
He (speaking of Malcolm McLean who transformed the shipping industry) was “completely indifferent to what people said about him,” Gladwell said, which is “the first and foundational fact to understand these disrupters. They are what psychologists call disagreeable–they do not require the approval of their peers in order to do what they think is correct.”
Reframing the problem.
“Successful disrupters are people who are capable of an active imagination,” said Gladwell. “They begin reimagining their world by reframing the problem in a way no one had framed it before.”
Removing constraints.
When McLean realized he was going to need a strong crane for his shipping containers, he thought of the lumber industry and flew up to Washington state.
“Can you build me a crane?” he asked the crane maker. “Sure,” they said. “And can I have it in 90 days?” The crane maker told him he wouldn’t even have to wait–they would send one right over that afternoon. “You could see by reframing the problem, that frees him up,” said Gladwell. But why insist on getting the crane in 90 days?
Well, that reason is simple. Like a certain entrepreneur who had just seen the graphical user interface at Xerox Parc and wanted to build one of his own, McLean wanted to get it done, now. It had nothing to do with his vision or insight. Not even his brains or resources, said Gladwell.
Like Steve Jobs, McLean believed in his vision. What set him apart was not what was in his head or his pocket–“it was in his heart,” said Gladwell.
