[...]... significant that the title of this book is The Power of Starting Something Stupid rather than simply The Power of Stupid (an option I briefly entertained) The most challenging part of nearly any project is the initial exertion of energy (and courage) required to begin Once you’ve overcome the often-debilitating power of resistance, the momentum to keep going leads from one thing to another until you... within their jobs and their lives as a whole (You are not excluded from this group.) But people disregard these inspired thoughts, these high-potential opportunities, as “just another stupid idea.” Why? Perhaps they are concerned about a lack of support (perceived or otherwise) from others, or maybe they are afraid of what others will think of them if they fail Whatever the reason, they convince themselves:... or something even better The “Miracle of the Used Jeans” offers a perfect illustration of the very real power of starting Here are the parting words from my interview with Clay: While part of any success is being in the right place at the right time, there is much of our success that we control by our decisions and actions How many people, for example, saw the youth buying jeans for hundreds of dollars... procrastination A Bit of History and Latest Trends In the late 1800s, organizations in countries such as Germany and the United States began to offer pensions to meet the needs of the people Often they put a restriction on the disbursement of retirement benefits and granted them only to the people who met the company’s or the government’s special requirements (such as reaching the age of sixty-five) Companies... perceive as stupid The traditional idea of stupidity is as old as time Pick up any dictionary, and it will offer some derivative of the definition, “lacking intelligence and common sense.” This type of stupidity is what I call unhealthy stupid It is dangerous, and clearly not the kind of stupid you want to embrace Unhealthy stupid indicates that a thing or idea is inherently faulty, meaning that the stupidity... did the “crazy thing” and became a living legend, even gracing the cover of Time magazine in 1999 as “Person of the Year.” Jeff Bezos changed the world as we knew it, all because he was stupid enough to start “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the. .. When you look at life through the stupid filter, you quickly find that quite often the stuff that sticks is the selfsame stuff that someone, somewhere, once wrote off as stupid. ” And if some of the world’s greatest success stories weren’t willing to stop at stupid, neither should you Innate Sensibility While the process of differentiation between unhealthy stupid and the New Smart requires significant... it’s not the idea that’s stupid, it’s the idea within the context of the current situation We can learn a powerful lesson from Bezos’s experience with starting Amazon.com He said, If you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, “What will I think at that time?” it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion You know, I left this Wall Street firm in the middle of the year When... prepared They worked hard They invested time and resources Then they waited, for years, only to discover that life at the end of the retirement rainbow wasn’t exactly what they thought it would be Sometimes a spouse had passed away Sometimes their health had declined The stock market had taken an unexpected downturn, and many of them didn’t have the money they’d expected to have (and on and on and on) These... knew, and the money was real.” “Sure it sounded stupid But we knew what we knew, and the money was real.” The Paradox of Stupid as the New Smart Let me whisper a secret directly into your ear: If someone thinks that your ideas, or the changes you want to make, or the dreams bubbling up inside of you, are stupid, welcome to the Club You’re in the company of the world’s leading innovators, change agents, . Data Norton, Richie, author. The power of starting something stupid / Richie Norton with Natalie Norton. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 97 8-1 -6 090 7-0 0 9-0 (hardbound. idea.” Why? Perhaps they are concerned about a lack of support (perceived or otherwise) from others, or maybe they are afraid of what others will think of them if they fail. Whatever the reason, they convince themselves: “This. in the United States of America Edwards Brothers Malloy, Ann Arbor, MI 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Advance Praise for Richie Norton and The Power of Starting Something Stupid “Perfect book for these