Be very wary of conventional wisdom

Be very wary of conventional wisdom


Liam Horan

Not alone would I never admit to watching the Rose of Tralee, neither would my dozen or so male friends who kept up a relentless textual bombardment over both nights.
It was while not watching the Rose of Tralee last week that I heard a young Rose talk about advice she picked up from Steve Jobs.
Yes, that Steve Jobs.
“Never stop being foolish,” Steve told a gathering of college students somewhere along the way.
Long after I have forgotten the dresses, the poems, the hairstyles, and the rouge, I will remember that. We are burdened by convention. We rarely want to be the first to try something radically different – and yet we murder one another in the queue to be second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and on and on to infinity, and beyond, of course.
“Let someone else have a go at it first, and if it works for them, I’ll come in on the slipstream,” is the guiding motto of far too many of us.
Conventional wisdom tells us it can’t be done. If we relied on conventional wisdom, we’d be in some mess now.
Conventional wisdom once said all wheels were square.
Conventional wisdom once decreed the earth to be flat.
Conventional wisdom once insisted Tyrone would never win an All-Ireland.
Conventional wisdom once argued you couldn’t build airports on foggy boggy hills between Knock and Charlestown.
Conventional wisdom once said our economy could sustain itself on the back of property development.
Conventional wisdom has been wrong so often it’s a wonder he hasn’t been arraigned on charges.
It is time for unconventional wisdom. It is time to be foolish. It is time to be the first.
I believe the capacity to be truly innovative lies within all of us. More, I believe we recognise the stirrings of deep creativity inside ourselves, and, at an instinctive level, in our gut, we know we should respond to them.
But, because it would require us to be different, to be the first, to defy conventional wisdom, to appear foolish, we suppress it – and instead opt to continue to plough the well-worn furrow.
The economic situation we now find ourselves in might just be the prompt we need. All bets are off now. Even conventional wisdom has had its cough softened. Everything is up for grabs now.
Put aside a Mad Hour for yourself every week. Entertain the daftest of notions for your business. Indulge that hare-brained scheme you’ve been afraid to mention to anyone.
It might prove to be a gusher.
Or it might bomb like Guinness Light.
But, by merely exposing it to the light, by placing yourself in the way of possible ridicule, you fulfil Steve Jobs’ dictum: you look foolish. Then, great things can follow.