Make a costume
Our 10-month-old granddaughter, who lives in London, needed to be ‘something’ for her first Halloween. So, her creative mother (Sally Wilkinson) and her creative grandmother (Cathy Singletary) got to thinking. Since she was learning to crawl, they decided the perfect outfit would be an English garden snail. So, she will be a snail, and her parents will be gardeners. Trick or treat!
Make up some numbers
My friend and social media expert, Will McStay, shared this post recently on LinkedIn, which struck a chord.I agree with the point Will is making here. Data is great. But when it comes at you in puffery and abundance with a bunch of posturing, it sometimes feels like somebody is just saying, ‘Because I said so’. I’m a contrarian, so I love it when the data is flat-out wrong, and believe me, that can be the case.
One specific example in my career was the business I helped build in the US university class ring market. All the ‘data’ (and focus groups) clearly said students wanted to choose a unique design for their class ring to celebrate their graduation. The business we built went against the large class ring manufacturers and returned schools to a single-ring tradition, where the ring represented the school, not the individual. Once this concept returned, class ring buy rates rose for the first time in decades.
History is full of individuals who went against what the data said and, in many cases, created some of the greatest inventions or concepts of all time.
- Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance artist and scientist who went against traditional boundaries between disciplines. In a time when art and science were largely separate, da Vinci approached his work holistically, blending detailed scientific observation with his artistic creations.
- The brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla broke from conventional ideas about energy transmission. While Thomas Edison, his contemporary, was focused on promoting direct current (DC) electricity, Tesla believed that alternating current (AC) would be a far more efficient system for powering homes and cities.
- More recently, in the mid-20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement for civil rights in the United States, challenging the deeply entrenched norms of racial segregation. Rather than resorting to violence, he emphasised peaceful protest, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent resistance. At a time when many were doubtful of nonviolent methods in the face of systemic racism, Dr. King’s approach led to significant progress in civil rights, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
These individuals, among countless others, show that pushing against the norm often comes with resistance, but their courage and conviction led to breakthroughs that redefined our world.
