Only Fools Break the Rules

When Netflix hit screens that fit in the palms of our hands, the rule was that people wanted to watch the latest releases on the big screen. Netflix broke that rule and then broke all records.

When Zerodha entered the market as an online brokerage company, the rule was that customers had to pay dearly for trading. Zerodha broke that rule and became a runaway success as the first discount brokerage offering.

When Sourav Ganguly became the Captain of the Indian cricket team, the rule was stability over creativity. He broke that rule and turned the story around.

When Aamir Khan rose to Bollywood supremacy, the rule was that big stars should have big awards to their name. He smashed that rule!?

There was a time when only fools would break the rules. Well then thank God for the fools! The truth is that we would be a different nation, and a different world if these individuals, companies and leaders hadn’t coloured outside the lines. Don’t get me wrong; rules are great. But they are milestones rather than finish lines. Rules give us direction in our formative phases, but there comes a time when we need to understand that rules need to be stretched and innovation embraced.?

There are gems of lessons to be learnt when we question the rules rather than accept them as the gospel truth. Progress happens when innovation thrives, and innovation can only thrive if we look beyond the rules that hold us back. I am delighted to see the number of students passing out from B-schools and tech institutes, who think like entrepreneurs and dream of redefining existing systems. From business ideas that heal the world, to ideas that make life simpler for consumers - entrepreneurship abounds and promises to lead us into progress at an accelerated pace. A couple of decades ago, the rule was that fancy degrees and a foreign education were the only real route to professional success. Today, thanks in part to the proliferation of the internet, youth from rural India have stood up and solved problems that have outshone ideas from the top schools in the world.?

Here is a radical idea - looking beyond the rules builds character. When you play by the book, you can blame the rules. But when you want to challenge boundaries, or you want to answer a need that has left generations of business folk baffled, you know you will have to relook at fundamentals. The deeper the problem, the more likely that you will have to get creative. At such times, the real innovators push themselves. They bend the rules without compromising on conscience, to achieve the unprecedented. When you trod this path, you’re on your own. But how does that build character, you may ask? The truth is that when all the responsibility is yours, with no rules to fall back on, and no precedents as safety nets, then you ensure you put in your 100%. The stakes are high, so you do your groundwork. Research, networking, weighing your odds - you leave no stone unturned to ensure that you can achieve what you have set out to do. In fact what no one has ever managed to do with the degree of success that you’re aiming for.

Another critical factor is support. Every small business that has pivoted in the last year and a half has had the backing of their peers and supportive policies by the government. They drew their strength from that and topped it up with their spirit of innovation. Every employee who has had their life or job role upended, and have had their criticality questioned in a scenario where all but essential services were dispensable - they have had to bend their own rules and find their own creative solutions. However, what enabled such decision-making was the role of corporations that stepped up and supported teams and their families. ALternative work arrangements were made, people were reskilled, vaccination drives arranged, health protection ramped up. Survival needs an ecosystem, but equally importantly, innovation too thrives in an ecosystem. To look beyond the rules - you have to have your allies.

No matter who you are, where you are and what circumstances you find yourself in - it’s always a great time to look beyond the boundaries. A life spent questioning the rules, is a life well spent. I’d like to end with something that caught my eye - the legendary Pablo Picasso is famed to have once said “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist”.