originality

Guest Post by: Laszlo Kövari

It would be flat out crazy to discredit the originals just because there are much more copycats; yet this happens all the time: think about the startup scene, the investment scene (vc, pe), management theories and practices or if we want to go a little deeper, about philosophies and arts.

“We are like dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants,” Bernard of Chartres.

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal,” Picasso, or, more likely, TS Eliot.

You’re “stepping all over Apple’s IP,” Steve Jobs.

Yes, there is a downside to the social web. Colleague Peter Kim calls it the echo chamber. I call it lack of original thought. The upside is that the level playing field of the internet also allows original thinkers to rise to the surface like the head of a frothy refreshing beer. I simply adore Hugh Macleod’s (Gapingvoid) first book, Ignore Everybody. The title says it all. You have to decide if what you believe in is good enough to fight for, to pursue, to risk everything for. Only you can decide this.