Have you ever been excited about a brilliant idea that you were overwhelmingly passionate about, which you could not wait until the opportunity you would have to share your idea with your friends only to have them over analyze your plan and pick it apart once you did?  Are you strong willed by sticking with your instinct anyways, or do you allow your associate’s and friend’s so-called sound thinking to keep you from pursuing the unsound?  Seth Godin, a best selling author, recently wrote an article titled The Intuition vs. Analysis Conundrum, where he explains that “your instincts are the only way you’re going to do something unsound.  And unsound things become hits.  Sound ones never do.” 

Orrin Woodward, founder of Team, has also highlighted the fact that wealth is made thru unconventional thinking.  Team’s leadership development program offers a wide variety of books and information on such industry leaders as Sam Walton, Michael Dell and Ray Kroc.  While Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas, his own family doubted his ambitions and to their amazement, Wal-Mart is now the largest corporation in the world.  In fact, Wal-Mart has more employees in uniform than the United States Army.  If that is not mind boggling enough for you, Wal-Mart generated more revenue selling DVDs in their stores last year than every movie theatre combined generated revenue selling movie tickets.  Likewise, Ray Kroc has had similar success with the founding of McDonald’s.  Back in the 50’s when Ray Kroc first started to franchise the McDonald’s restaurant; he would sell a franchise for a mere $925 and people laughed at his idea by the thousands.  Apparently, franchising had a bad reputation back in the 50’s, while today over %70 of all businesses are franchised based.  Moreover, Michael Dell had family members and friends criticize him for dropping out of college to sell computers.  Little did they know that he would become the wealthiest man alive under the age of 40, accumulating more wealth at a faster rate than Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates.

Shane Black, a Hollywood screen-writer, was 22 years old when he wrote a buddy-cop action-comedy story.  People said his script would never be a hit.  I mean come on, a buddy-cop comedy?  That won’t work in Hollywood.  Lethal Weapon, which starred Mel Gibson, took in over 100 million dollars and launched Mel Gibson to a whole new level of celebrity status.  Shane Black grossed $250,000 as a 24 year old kid, and later went on to be the highest paid screen-writer in the 1990’s.  Other full length feature films that Shane authored are the remaining three films in the Lethal Weapon franchise, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Good Night, and Last Action Hero.

If you share your dream, goal or idea with someone and they tell you that you are irrational or have ‘unconventional thinking,’ go home…look yourself in the mirror…and give yourself a high five!!  Any new idea at one time was unconventional because it was exactly that: new.  It was flirting with an area that has not been charted before.  Unsound ideas are the money makers, sound ideas are the dream breakers.  Do not allow people to fill your psyche with so-called ‘conventional wisdom.’  If you were to type the word ‘conventional’ into an online Thesaurus, you would see that it is similar to words such as normal, ordinary, standard, typical, and common.  Does that fill you with an inner sense of triumph?  Not hardly.  Conventional wisdom lifts up the sound idea, which promotes complacent behavior, which undoubtedly creates average results.  If you do not want to have a mediocre lifestyle, then listen to your instinct and pursue the unsound idea.