While the complexity of organizations today is growing, the availability of ‘best practices’ has made companies predictable and boring. I don’t want that for my organization.

For the past years, I’ve worked with several businesses - some successful, some less successful. I’ve seen a bootstrapped business founded and built by a college drop-off, a social worker, a psychologist and an x-fireman become one of Europe’s fastest-growing businesses. Why? They were different. Far from all the other entrepreneurs that tried to do everything the same way as before - just a little better. They didn’t become a follower - they did something so different from every other competitor - they founded and became the leader of the sportswear for dogs category. Instead of chasing what everyone else did - they were their own Superconsumer and knew exactly what to do to satisfy them.

I’ve also been in a company filled with master’s degrees, long business experience and a great product. That failed. Why? We worked too hard to copy what someone else had done. Six months too late. We became a follower and did nothing different to catch anyone’s attention. While the product was unique, solved a genuine widespread problem that no one had a good solution for - we fell back to doing what everyone else had done for the past year.

Turned out it wasn’t that easy. I learned all this after I joined the pirate movement, and I have never found a philosophy that resonated so much with my own experience. That is why I’m a pirate, obsessed with thinking differently. Wish to learn more about the pirate movement? Check out Category Pirates!