Best Practices are the Worst Idea

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

– Bruce Lee

We are trained, basically from birth, to believe that other people know better than us.

We copy our parents, we obey our teachers, we fear our religious leaders, we fall in line and when we step out of line there is always someone ready to push us back into conformity.

And yet, oddly, we glorify the non-conformists: Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bruce Lee, etc.

We think of them as anomalies, and believe that the unique brilliance that they experienced is something that we could never possess.

So when living our lives and running our businesses we conform. We copy. We replicate. We regurgitate. We fall in line.

The often praised “best practices” are a prime example of our herd mentality.

‘Someone else did ABC and they got XYZ result. I think we should do that too!’

Hooray! We conformed!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Erik, if someone used a process and got a result then obviously we can do the same thing and get the same result. It only makes sense to duplicate success.”

Let me clarify something, building a business, running a lead generation campaign, creating a webinar, etc is NOT like science.

Mixing the same chemicals, in the same ratio, in the same way as other people and getting the same result IS science. There are no variables because all the elements are the same. THAT is when you should copy other people…so you don’t blow yourself up.

But when it comes to business, other people’s best practices can quickly become your worst night mare.

If you don’t believe me, grab a copy of the book ‘Good to Great’ and go visit the “great” companies Jim Collins praised and profiled in the book, and then emulate what they did to become successful…oh wait, you can’t…because they are all GONE!

“But, but, but they were HUGE and they had BEST PRACTICES and they copied other successful systems and, and, and…”

And they ignored their guts, and they put faith in the rehashed processes of other companies, and they thought the past equaled the future, and they were afraid to take a real chance, and they rode that fear into the dirt.

“Geez, Erik, you’re a real buzz kill!”

I know. I’m sorry. But let me offer a different perspective.

If we glorify, and even envy, the non-conformists, why don’t we become one?

The usual response is fear of being “wrong.”

“What if we try to be different and the market doesn’t want us to be different?”

Of course the market doesn’t WANT you to be different. The market can ONLY want what it knows that ALREADY EXISTS. It can’t possibly know what else it might want UNTIL that other option is created.

Here’s a more important question: If you are going to copy what some other company already does, then why does the world even need you?

In today’s world we watch as technology is rapidly gobbling up and spitting out old companies, old business models and old money. And yet we keep desperately looking for those “best practices” we can copy.

The reality is that THERE IS NO “BEST” PRACTICE!

By the time you find something that recently worked well for some company, that process has already been copied 1,000X by other “me too” companies and made “old” in a matter of weeks or days…or hours.

“Okay, Mr. Smartass, what is the answer then?”

I’m glad you asked :)

The answer is simple: Use best practices.

“Whaaaaatttt?”

Let me clarify. You should use YOUR OWN best practices. You should constantly be adapting how you do what you do.

You must keep PRACTICING so you can be your BEST.

Bruce Lee said “Use no way as way. Have no limitation as limitation.”

Inherent in copying other people’s best practices is following their WAY and being bound by their LIMITATIONS.

If you want to create a company on par with (but not a copy of) Apple, Samuel Adams, Facebook, AirBNB or any other unstoppable juggernaut then you have to look within!

“But how can we look within, find our own way, and create the practices that will allow us to be the best company we can be?”

Well, that is what I call a “rabbit hold question;” We could spend forever talking about it.

But here are three questions for you to ask yourself to get you started. And they can be used at all levels of your organization.

1.     Why are we doing this?

If the only thing that appeals to you is the money potential then you are already doomed.

You have to find true meaning, a true mission. Hyper-growth companies are teams on a mission, not a gang on a heist.

2.     How do we do, what we do, differently than anyone else?

If you have passion but your product, service or process is the same as someone else then you are, again, doomed.

You have to innovate. As a matter of fact you have to go beyond innovation to evolution. Hyper-growth companies have a product, service or process that is unique.

3.     Does (or will) the market want this or do we just want the market to want this?

This is a pivotal question. If you are doing something new because YOU think it is cool, but you can’t see any real use for it in the market (or you haven’t even thought about that) you are, AGAIN, doomed.

Hyper-growth companies combine “keeping an eye on the future” with “keeping their thumb on the pulse” of the market.

Now, I know that there are some folks who are still reading this even though they are not happy because they want to hold onto their faith in the ‘brilliance of others’ and the ‘strength of numbers.’

And to you I will throw this carrot.

Yes, you will get some positive results from trying the best practices of others.

But you will also get some negative results from trying the best practices of others.

 And, ultimately, you will get far less growth (and revenue) copying than you will creating.

If you don’t believe me, just ask any Elvis impersonator if they can afford to buy Graceland!

Enjoy!

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