Your Way or the Highway

To achieve unimaginable results, embrace your unique ideas and techniques

How often have you heard someone say:

  • “You’re doing it wrong.”

  • “That’s not how you’re supposed to do it.”

  • “Just do what you’re told.”

While there may be certain methods that are widely accepted, there’s rarely one “right” approach.

Here’s a short story about an athlete who challenged common conventions and instead tried it his way.

It might just inspire you to change your approach.

Look Back:

The ‘Fosbury Flop’

To set the stage, Dick Fosbury was a high school student in southern Oregon in the mid-1960s. He loved sports, but failed to make the football and basketball teams, so he shifted his attention to track and field.

By his own account, he was the worst high jumper in his school, and likely the state of Oregon.

Rather than competing in the same way as everyone else, he followed his curiosity and began experimenting with his form.

Fosbury’s strange approach was faced with skepticism and criticism from his coaches who thought it was ridiculous and dangerous. At one point, he even compressed a couple of his vertebrae when competing at a high school that couldn’t afford the upgraded, foam landing surface.

Fosbury recovered from that injury, kept tinkering, and eventually landed on a method that worked. His new technique gained the name “Fosbury Flop” when the Medford Mail-Tribune ran a photo captioned “Fosbury Flops Over Bar.”

In his junior year, he broke his high-school’s record using this new method, and the next year he took second place in the state.

Despite his success, Fosbury still faced criticism. One reporter wrote that Fosbury looked like “a fish flopping in a boat,” and another newspaper captioned Fosbury’s photograph, “World’s Laziest High Jumper.”

Fosbury earned a scholarship to Oregon State University, but his college coaches were also skeptical of his unconventional method and believed he would get better results doing it their way. They convinced him to continue practicing the old techniques through his first year, although he was allowed to use the “flop” in freshman meets.

The debate over technique ended during Fosbury’s second year when he shattered the school record in his first meet. But he didn’t stop there.

As an engineering student, Fosbury studied his new method to improve it. After applying some calculations, he learned that by arching his back a jumper’s center of gravity can stay below the bar even as their body sails over it. If he could get into the perfect arch, he’d have a mechanical advantage when using the technique. This led him to move his takeoff further away from the bar to increase his flight time and follow the path of a parabola.

After making several adjustments to his jump, Fosbury won an NCAA championship in 1968, and then two weeks later, the U.S. Olympic trials.

Despite the win, his place on the Olympic team was not assured. The U.S. Olympic Committee was worried that the results at sea-level in Los Angeles might not be replicated at the high altitude in Mexico City where the Games were to be held, so they held another competition near Lake Tahoe.

During that competition, all participants had cleared the same height, but Fosbury was in fourth place because of misses. The bar was then raised to a height none of the four had ever cleared. Fosbury was one of three competitors who cleared it on the first attempt, and the Olympic team was set.

When the 21-year-old Fosbury debuted his method on the global stage at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the crowd and commentators fluctuated between laughter and awe. That is until he won the gold medal in high jump.

After demonstrating the superiority of his unconventional method, the “Fosbury Flop” quickly became the dominant technique in high jump, still used by virtually all high jumpers today.

Look Forward:

Applying Lessons from Fosbury

Doing something new or different can be scary
 it can be lonely
 it can even be risky.

I’d say most of the time, it’s a really bad idea.

But if you want to be the best
 if you want to push the limits of what’s possible
 if you want to make REAL PROGRESS
 you have to differentiate yourself from the competition.

I took away three characteristics that helped Fosbury achieve the unimaginable while doing it his way.

  • He was Patient. Fosbury’s results didn’t come overnight. It took years and years of continuous improvement, and he continued to doubted even after achieving some success. Trying something new is difficult, and you must be patient to persevere.

  • He was Intuitive + Analytical. In addition to trusting his instincts and having the courage to try something new, Fosbury also studied ways to improve on those instincts. He approached it like a scientist, analyzed different approaches, and experimented his way to success.

  • He was Contrarian. Fosbury wasn’t afraid to be different; he embraced it. Despite being mocked and doubted, Fosbury knew their ignorance was his opportunity.

Focus:

Find Your Earned Secret

The concept of being contrarian also applies to business.

Peter Thiel says that challengers need to have an earned secret. In other words, what do you know about the world that isn’t obvious to others? What is counterintuitive? What’s the most misunderstood thing?

Here’s the rationale:

If your startup is trying to solve a problem that everyone knows is a problem, then the big companies will spend more money than you to solve it, so you’re at a disadvantage. That’s why you need an earned secret.

Your earned secret often comes from your life experience — the work you do, the information you consume, the people you spend time with. These are all things you can influence to increase your surface area of luck.

Write about your secret(s). What do you know about the world, and how do you view it differently than others? Are your views valid, or are you delusional? Are they really secrets, and if so, who else knows?

Roll around in your secrets until you find one that provides a solid foundation to build on.

Thanks for reading!

Until next week, keep growing »

Scott​

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