Book Review – Originals by Adam Grant

The author portrays all the non-conformists who bring originality to their ideas and visions toward social, economic, and emotional problems, presenting desirable, feasible, and viable solutions. That's why he called them change agents in the history of products, technology & social reforming.

Creative destruction - This book demonstrates a path that does not accept any system unless it meets your unmet needs or relieves your pain.

In an example, he gave about Warby Parker's creation, 4 of his friends were completely irritated with Luxottica, which controlled 80% of the market share. Their motto was to offer the same pair of glasses online for just $95 rather than $500 in-store. Strategic minds take the right risks when the time is right.

Six months before the launch of Warby Parker, the founders were sitting in their classroom at Wharton.

They discussed, and Neil Blumenthal commented – “We want to hedge our bets” That’s why the entrepreneurs who hedged their bets by starting their companies while still working were far more risk-averse and unsure of themselves.

Similarly, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates waited a year before leaving Harvard after selling his first software. For mitigation of this kind of risk, Warby Parker is the best example. Neil Blumenthal & Dave Gilboa became co-CEOs to further reduce risk, make a safer choice for the organization, and nullify the conventional notion of a one-CEO company.

The author nicely pointed out that there is no such thing as a default, and he also interpreted that there is always some fault in every default. The beautiful strategic mind finds it and

makes history of creating a product that beats the default browser for MAC users, Microsoft Explorer, and Safari. It is an important part of creating a next-generation product with a story about Google Chrome. Sundar Pichai led Chrome for seven years before becoming CEO of Google; think about the strategic mindset of the leader.

The prolific outcome for a blind innovator with a one-eyed investor -Originality sometimes does not get the proper recognition. That classic example is Picasso's oeuvre, which includes over 1800 paintings and 1200 sculptures. And 2800 ceramics and 12,000 drawings but only a fraction of which have generated acclaim. It is widely assumed that there’s a tradeoff between quantity & quality. Many people fail to achieve ideas’ originality because they generate few ideas and obsess about refining them. The Segway was the most extraordinary technology. When developing the Segway, Dean Kamen, who had 440 patents on his name, did not open the door for feedback from his target audience. The Segway was the most extraordinary technological transportation. In this situation, the device was experienced by an elite class of people but did not go through extensive customer validation; hence it was left vulnerable to false positives.

Bound with conventional prototyping or modeling - The writer gave an excellent example of the popular TV show Seinfeld creator/writer tried to put in a different script, and the initial pilot was a disaster.

as commented by – Brandon Tartikoff said, it was centric with "New York" and "too Jewish," so it did not give much appeal to the broader audience.

An owner could have rated the TV pilot as Moderate to Low, but he deemed it low, so it was underrated. Most of the time, if people break the stereotype and find a hard time accepted by the target segment of people, it does not stop the critical thinker from stopping their journey. That is why we can see products like – Xbox was almost buried at Microsoft or laser printer almost canceled at Xerox being expensive & impractical. Henceforth, during the uncertainty, any fresh idea should not reject or canceled but rather nurtured for the left-out flaws to be corrected. So, the author called out a false negative.

Any product or content can be more mature, and depth based on the owner’s experience in various departments as per the product needs, and it should be confined to a specific direction.

Therefore, the success of the product or service depends upon the various skill, knowledge & depth of their experience matters.

You may be a creator or inventor with novel ideas in your domain or area, but it means you may have the right thought or idea for another domain once you have the same expertise or experience.

Alternatively, in this case, you can use your intuition as a driving force to bet on something outside your expertise's scope.

Passion is an essential tool to be successful in the idea entrepreneur brings to the table. Taking the right action at the right time is also an important step. For example, Kamen did not invest in Warby Parker as he needed the proper lens to see the broader spectrum. As part of the mission to drive a low-cost pricing model, Kamen wanted to bring the concept directly to the customer and cut it off between all the mediators. Due to the mediators, prices always increase. He thought to put the price at $45, but after doing deep customer validation & AV testing with created different landing pages, the price settled down to $100, which most of the customers showed interest in paying. But to penetrate the premium segment, branding is a critical boat to drive.

The author brought an angel-like change agent in society who not only changes the way people look at the problem but also gives a new solution in a highly effective way.

An interesting example is – Google CEO Larry's page had a different objective while he was studying at Stanford, completing focused the projects on his Ph.D. program, and did not want to send it out a powerful search engine to the market.

According to the empathy map for the entrepreneur, priorities change over time based on different motivations.

There was a gender-biased issue in the 1980s when Apple CEO Donna Dubinsky did not get much support from board members & other executives. Nobody had given her enough patience to listen or allowed her to speak, so after a certain period, she had taken her path to exit to raise her voice. She joined a startup called palm computing with PalmPilot under her leadership and sold half a million units, and in 1997, the Palm was acquired by 3com. In this situation, the finance team asked her to reduce costs by 10%, but she clearly said the investment in R&D I needed without compromise. That is why she had to leave Palm and join Handspring, which merged with Apple in 2003. Handspring was mainly in the Treo smartphone, and Apple launched their dream run of the iPhone in 2008.

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According to market research, a thriving startup depends on whether the entrepreneur goes with the flow of the crowd or waits until the market cools down before starting to accept the entrepreneur's offering. Secondly, the chances of getting funding and going public are always higher. This means the product does not need to be aligned with the market but rather a unique offering with the trendsetter to gain more customers quickly. Additionally, experimental innovators blossom in their later years. Two ideologists or entrepreneurs cannot work together unless they have a common goal. One becomes a co-founder if their vision for their venture creates the same impact on customers. A progressive strategy and radical thinking are also needed to converge leadership in the same domain.

On the other hand, it creates a conflicting interest for both leaders. Rebel with a right cause always brings change for humanity. Jackie Robinson became the first major league baseball player in 1947 when there was a black vs. white racism issue in America. A non-conformist is always a sign of originality. For instance, identical twins in their adulthood behave differently regarding risk-taking, attitude toward life, and general behavior.

The studies also revealed that children from orthodox families tend to rebel more, whereas parents who set rules for their teenagers with the proper reasoning and provide the big picture break them rarely.

Correct messaging can make a big difference from a social, product, or business perspective. A simple change in the message can reach the right audience to onboard.

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Getting the right mentor is sometimes hard but reading the right novel can get you to follow the leader you admire, and that's what happened with some software giants like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel choosing Lord of Rings, a hobbit's adventure to destroy a dangerous ring. Like Mark Zuckerberg's fondness for Ender’s Game, Jack Ma named his company Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves after his childhood book.

Groupthink is the enemy of originality and the killer of the diversity of thoughts. American foreign policy disasters such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Vietnam War resulted from groupthink.

On the other hand, groupthink brings a new culture of family, love, and companionship to corporations. Another boom is groupthink, i.e., the dot com era starting in the early '90s and bursting in 2000.

In the same context, one person plays the Devil's advocate role to challenge the majority's thoughts. As an outcome, the decision will be based on meritocracy rather than democracy or not a status hierarchy.

Most top leaders tell their executives, "Don't bring me a problem but the solution." But unfortunately, due to this solution culture, sometimes it blocks the path for the inquiry, which may help to see the hole or gap in the system. That happened in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia exploded in orbit because a mystery object created a hole in the left wing, and eventually, hot gas entered the ship. If somebody had raised the inquiry on 2nd day, as there was a mystery object floating in orbit, this incident could have been avoided.

Other major people assume it is better to be a strategic optimist than a defensive pessimist. This comes with all human emotions like fear, anxiety, and nervousness to think positively or become so negative to start working on most worst-case scenarios. Based on the study conducted by Harvard Prof. John Kotter, most of the time, people want to play safe and stick to their comfort zone, and without a sense of urgency, people will not sacrifice for the right thing from the beginning. These change agents have a common characteristic in that they are visionaries and drive the strategy for achieving the goal.

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Originals embrace the uphill battle, striving to make the world what it could be.

Being original does not give you an easy path to your life or society but gives you satisfaction and motivation for your life.

The big picture of your surroundings is what inspires you, challenges the status quo, and gives you a sense of purpose for many ideas to revolutionize technology, business, and every human life.