The naughties might be over, but that’s no reason to stop being naughty.  In fact, I downright encourage it.

While you certainly have to get in the game if you want to win, success isn’t necessarily achieved by playing by the established rules of the game.  Whatever you’re working on, whatever game you’re in, whatever you’re building, you have to ask 2 questions:

1. Who made these rules up anyway?
2. Why did I assume this was the only way?

Success isn’t achieved by following a well-trodden path, particularly as an entrepreneur.  You won’t win by playing by someone else’s rules or by assuming things need to be done a certain way.  By all means learn from your role models and mentors, but don’t blindly follow what they – or anyone else – has done.  They did it their way, and there’s no guarantee the same rules will work for you.

“Whatever you do, don’t read this book and take everything I say for word… Don’t ever be afraid to put your feet in that water, whether I’ve said a word about it or not.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, “Crush It”.

Success, particularly in todays tech-enabled world, is down to innovation.  Or in other words, success isn’t about how other people have done it, it’s how you want to do it.

That’s not to say you should tear around like a bull in a china shop or make outrageous claims about yourself that you simply can’t deliver on, but you have to give yourself permission to step out and break the rules.  You gotta be bold and brave enough to make up your own rules for achieving what matters to you, and to hell with what the establishment might think.

I have some fresh ideas in the works that I’m excited about, and while I continue to listen to and learn from the people I respect I’m also ready to put their advice to one side and make things up as I go.  It doesn’t matter whether I do what folks expect or not, and neither does it matter whether I go about things in the way I’d expect to normally.  What matters is that I play well and innovate.

I think this takes guts and confidence, and it’s why most budding entrepreneurs trip themselves up at the first hurdle.  It requires that you spend time being uncomfortable, because growth and change don’t happen while you’re sitting comfortably. The confidence to break the rules, to be happy being uncomfortable and to innovate by using everything you have and everything you are is what allows you to change the game.  And it can be learned.

Success is not about playing by the rules, it’s about being naughty.

What do you think?