Encourage Theft

“I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to use tactic I stole from you in my upcoming TED talk…”

A former student-turned-CEO reached out to get “permission” to borrow a tactic he’d seen me use in a speech. Apparently, he’d been watching one of my talks, and had been inspired by some turn of phrase, but he felt the need to clarify with me first.

How do you think I responded?

Instead of simply giving him permission, I told him all the things I’d noticed recently, and shamelessly stolen:

“There are so many cool tactics we can pick up and put into our bags of tricks. One I heard last weekend (during a wedding toast) was, ‘That's what I'd like to end with (whatever the comment was). But before I conclude, allow me to begin.’ Another I saw in an email exchange recently is ‘Promoting you to bcc.’ I thought that was so much better than ‘Moving’ someone off the conversation!”

The truth is, everything I know, I learned from someone else! Everything I do is a patchwork compilation of all the things I’ve seen! I’m sure even that idea isn’t new. The reality is, some of the greatest innovators of all time — from Steve Jobs to Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos — have made a habit of borrowing liberally.

After all, innovation is really just recombining existing parts in unexpected ways.

My intent by sharing my own real-time examples with my former student was to normalize being inspired by people. To normalize incorporating bits into one’s act. To normalize growth. I do not think it is important for him to ask me for permission, and would cringe if he “credited” me in his talk. Instead, I hope he pays it forward by inspiring others in his own hodgepodge, patchwork kind of way.

Related: Borrow Liberally
Related: Recombine Existing Parts
Related: Normalize Growth

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