Here’s To The Crazy Ones

One of my favorite subjects to write about is what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. I have proudly subjected myself to a lifetime of entrepreneurial street fights. I have won and lost some, but I have forever been grateful for them.

I’ve often written about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how you should think and act to be an entrepreneur. I love exploring the pitfalls and the incredible satisfaction you can have. Today, however, I want to talk about one of the most complex issues that some entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs must deal with. That is those people who will never get what it takes to step off of the precipice and put it all on the line simply for having an idea driven by passion.

Many people will spend their entire lives in a protective cocoon, never taking a chance or stepping out in faith with a vision of what life could be. Can you imagine how intensely crazy the world must have thought Thomas Edison was when he walked into a scientific conference with the lightbulb? I hear him saying, “No more whale blubber to light the night; electricity will do that.”   Imagine the great inventions of history and how the public and the scientific community must have cried lunatic to the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, or a young Steve Jobs, who said his communication device would improve the lives of families worldwide and replace hundreds of other products.

One of my entrepreneurial heroes is Steve Jobs. No matter what you might think of him, he was, first and foremost, an entrepreneur with a vision. I sometimes force myself to read one of his quotes that forever touched me. One of Steve Jobs’ most famous quotes comes from the kickoff to the 1997 Apple Think Different Campaign, where he said,

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…the ones who see things differently-they’re not fond of rules…You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things…they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Being an entrepreneur means putting up with the finger-pointing, laughing, snickering, and behind-the-back comments of people who don’t choose to have a vision. If you’re reading this, know that you and you alone might have an idea that could change the world if you weren’t afraid of what people might say.

The hell with them. If you have a vision, make it a big one. Think it through, and then step out in faith and see what happens.

I’ll be right there cheering you on!