My new book, Someday Is Today: 22 Simple, Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life, contains a chapter entitled, “Be a Criminal.”
The lesson of the chapter is this:
Sometimes we need to bend or break the rules in order to succeed. If we spend our lives walking the straight and narrow, we will miss out on opportunities otherwise denied to us by inanity, stupidity, or the tragically pedantic nature of others.
Read the chapter. It’s a good one. But until then, allow me to offer this list that didn’t make it into the pages of the book:
Matthew Dicks’s 7 Maxims on Rule Followers and Rule Breakers
Rule followers think they are constantly being watched.
Rule breakers know the truth.
_____________________________________
Rule followers believe that the majority of rules make good sense.
Rule breakers are skeptical about the usefulness of almost any rule.
_____________________________________
Rule followers believe in the maxim, “Why reinvent the wheel?”
Rule breakers believe in the possibility of better wheels.
_____________________________________
Rule followers worry about getting in trouble all the time.
Rule breakers rarely worry about getting in trouble – and rarely do.
_____________________________________
Rule followers define a boss’s admonition as “getting in trouble.”
Rule breakers characterize a boss’s admonition as “feedback.”
_____________________________________
Rule followers are often deeply unhappy with rule breakers.
Rule breakers rarely think about rule followers.
