I came across this term while reading Whitney Johnson’s write-up on ‘disrupt yourself’ – and simply stunned by its very relevance even today.
Companies advance by being disruptive; well, we have kind of heard that time and again. But have you ever wondered how being disruptive can make you stand out from the pack of cut-throat competition?
For me disruption is innovation + acceleration + advancement = excellence!
And, trust me, being disruptive is a skill that some people innately understand, and some people just trash it, considering it as an euphemism of being confused and irrationally exuberant.
But that is not quite true. Today, when we are faced with a storm of entrepreneurs and working professionals chasing their dream of making it enormously big in their respective career and businesses, disruption will be a separate subject of learning for companies and individuals. And while this seems daunting, people love the chase –the challenge – the plunge of being different.
Here are some reasons that underpin the very significance of disruption.
- Makes you phenomenally creative. When you take the roads not traveled – especially in your career – transitioning from one job to the other, or if you are an entrepreneur you navigate with a rationale of treading the uncharted territories to explore a new career or a new business wavelength, you can apply your right brain in understanding the underlying pattern of your true calling. Your creativity will reflect in how you can transport the key learning of your past experience in something which is not seemingly connected to your future career path.
- Makes you a great storyteller. So: who is a storyteller – and a true storyteller? Someone who can connect the dots of his past with his present – and carve a vision that connects with his deepest purpose; someone who can weave words that spark emotion and moves a person, seamlessly. So what better than having a disruptive mindset? Say, if you can explain why being an investment banker in Wallstreet made you a great writer who can explain how businesses rise and fall and how you eventually landed up started your consulting business of advising young entrepreneurs how to make money for your passion, then you really know how to disrupt yourself. Or let’s make this even more disruptive, how being an accountant made you a time management coach and eventually a top sales rep of your company – yes, that’s what I mean.
- You will be an entrepreneur. You like it or don’t, you will be – if not an entrepreneur – you will be highly entrepreneurial. Why? Because you can synthesize your learning of being in different industries and monetize your idea for niche that perhaps is discovered by a vital few.
- You will never – ever – give up. Somehow I think Richard Branson is a befitting example for this trait. We all are familiar with his story of being a successful billionaire with not-so-successful journey he had in the initial few years of his entrepreneurial journey: he had 14 failed businesses in over 100, and was quoted as saying, “businesses are like buses: there are always one after the other.” His book ‘Losing My Virginity’ can help you understand disruption from both personal and business standpoint – and how you can launch your own business just like how Branson launched the Virgin brand.
Lesson? Follow your passion, even if you feel it is not something you have not done in the past, but your true calling is in exploring until something settles and gives you that peak of contentment, which is unmatched.
Be you. Be disruptive.
