Funny, my favorite line in a movie was in the Monty Python comedy The Life of Bryan in 1979, where Bryan tells his followers that: “you are all individuals” and “you are all different” and they repeat in unison “we are all individuals” and “we are all different”.
Then one person at the back puts up their hand and says “I’m not!”.
This is a bit like Steve Jobs telling everyone to think different. I posted this in November 2014:
“Ask 100 people if they think differently & 99 will put up their hand. The 1 that doesn’t is an entrepreneur #startup #startupaus Be different”
But even being different is a furphy, as most entrepreneurs now think that is all the rage but “being different” and “thinking differently” requires us to differ, and most people, especially the younger ones, in my view, are afraid to differ because of the conflict that can and usually does occur.
But what if we agreed (to a degree, as remember we differ) to set up a work environment where people felt comfortable to differ. That is what we are working on at Pablow Inc.
This seems to be taking some time though, and it is a work in progress, as we still have to allow each other to beg to differ.