How to reject the premise and become a strategic, future-oriented thinker
Every legendary Category King started as a dumb idea, until it wasn’t.
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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
This founder’s post shares how to reject the way it is to create the way it will be.
In order to change the world, and define and dominate a category, you have to reject the premise. You can’t just blindly accept the world the way it is. And it’s in your best interest to begin thinking about a new and different future as soon as possible.
Rejecting the premise means rejecting “what has been true” about the past.
Thinking about “the past” is deeply rooted in the DNA of many entrepreneurs, investors, executives, academics, and strategists.
Harvard Business School students read ~500 case studies (about the past) during their two years of study.
Most management consulting firms give a detailed analysis of what worked yesterday. They explain the past.
Good to Great by Jim Collins is all about comparing similar companies (from the past).
Academics can’t publish without extensive research about the past. And any new information has to be rigorously peer-reviewed by other professors who are experts in the past.
None of these are accurate (or effective) definitions of truly strategic thinking.
The core issue is that 100% of what we’ve been taught is based on the past and doesn’t reflect a future where many things might change. Every generation looks and laughs at prior generations and wonders, “How did those prior generations believe that? Look at what we didn’t know!”
Well, why would we assume future generations wouldn’t look at us the same way?
Rejecting the premise lets you create a different future.
No legendary entrepreneur, inventor, business leader, creator, or artist started their journey by accepting the premise: