And then there’s Richard Branson
Convention. the majority of the world runs by it, and makes a success of life by sticking close to it. You can’t often argue against it, as it has a pretty strong track record, and the support of a multi-tude. One of the citizens of TT.biz is reading Good to Great at the moment, and boy is it making an impact. Not just on them, but on the rest of us, who are reading it through this citizen. It’s good solid business reading that makes great sense. The gems found in the book may even become convention one day. Business schools will teach the principles, magazines will write them up, and corporates will begin to roll them out. (mmmmhhhhh this is already happening – we’re further down the road than you think)
But then, a curve ball, from left field. Someone who hasn’t done it the conventional way. Someone who has broken the rules and continues to break them. Richard Branson…
I was reading an old issue if FastCompany (Click for their web site) this morning. One of the feature articles was on the man himself. Worth more than $2 billion personally. Has started over 350 companies. Attempted and failed several times to fly aronud the world solo, in a hot air balloon. Succeeded and failed at many business ventures.
But the thoughts that grabbed me most as I read, where the comments from industry experts, who over and over said that Branson can’t possibly keep doing what he’s doing. You can’t stretch a brand that far. You can’t get invovled in the diverse industries he is. You can’t trade only on your personalisty. You can’t, you can’t you can’t.
Oh yes you can. you can if you’re Richard Branson. You can if you’re Ricardo Semler. You can if you’re Nelson Mandela. You can if you’re Albert Einstein. You can, you can, you can.
To be honest, and this is just me speak here, I’d rather people looked at me and saw the unconventional. Saw the ‘can do’ guy. Convention may work for most people out there, but I like the people who fly in the face of all that. Who dare to go where aparently they can’t or shouldn’t. Those are the people I want to be.
So I’m looking for the ‘can’t’ book that sits directly opposite ‘From Good to Great’. I’m sitting in Hyde Park in Seattle Coffee shop, right next to Exclusive Books. As soon as my meetings over I’m going to find me a book. Let’s hope they got one. I need to read something that will balance my fellow citizen. You got any ideas, I’d love to hear them?
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Hi Barrie
I am loving Good to Great. Great airplane reading…
Just a thought – “can do” guys embody initiative. Can initiative be written down? Can it be taught, or learned, for that matter? Isn’t it the nature of initiative to have no conventions?
If so, a book to ‘balance your fellow citizen’ might just be a paradox in concept. Darn it.
What books inspired Mr. Branson, if any at all?
I’m a firm believer in breaking the rules. The only rules I adhere to are those that will cause me bodily harm or cost me money if I do not. Too many times in my life have I been moulded and cramped according to someone else’s rules. No more, I say! And what a liberation that is. (Though the process of getting to this point was without a doubt not easy) A book I read early in my career that made a huge impact on me (not instantly, but I learned fast) was Why good girls don’t get ahead, but gutsy girls do by Kate White (today the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine). Very refreshing and especially challenging for a girl that was brought up a goody-two-shoes!
What makes this 2 billion dollar man fly his own airline – when he has a few private jets in the garage? What makes him wander through the coach class greeting strangers and serving drinks? What makes him stand at the door shaking hands with passengers as they leave? I have no idea – but I do know that I like him, because I connected with him … and if it’s a connection economy that we’re hurtling toward at a rate of knots, where “who you are” overshadows “what you sell”, then Mr Branson is not going to survive – he’s going to thrive. I’ve never met Jim Collins on the other hand – and I don’t really want to…