I often find myself going against the grain. Whether at work or in my personal life, if something isn’t working, I’ll change it, no matter how many other people do it.

I used to eat 6 times a day and start the day with cornflakes. I felt terrible. I cut out all processed food and now eat a meal of mainly red meat once per day.

In my first businesses, I engineering audio in a novel way that produced a clearer, louder sound than much of the competition.

“Industry norms” is a term you hear a lot. Norm is short for normal, so industry norms literally means what an industry normally does. This creates a set of boundaries that the majority of people work within.

There are certain “norms” which are a good idea to follow but when something doesn’t work well, there is a reluctance to change. Changing means stepping outside these mental limits. Something terrible might happen right?

But if you do the same thing as everyone else, you’ll get the same results.

The pioneers are the ones who build on these norms or throw them out to create something new. A battery powered car, the internet or decentralised digital money.

There is a great line from this Ted talk. “The 97% majority all work for the 3% minority.”