On the topic of changing the game

The other day I read an interesting article by Shane Snow on "best practices" - how it represents one of the universal solutions of today: to search for particular best practices within one's industry in order to achieve excellent results. But Snow's point is actually thought provoking - as Snow puts it:

Best practices don’t make you the best. They make you the average of everyone else who follows them.

It is actually in line with the Muriel Strode quote that I took into account when arguing against copying the achievements of great people. If you walk in the footsteps of others; if you follow other people's best practices, or for that matter: if you copy the acheivements of great people - you will never become the person whose feet leave the footprints, never become the one who sets best practices; or the great person, whose achievements other people dream of copying - you just become someone who follows.
Whereas the one who tries to innovate and solve problems, which were never resolved before, puts oneself in the position, on which Snow says, "it's the way games get changed instead of simply played".
 And that would probably be the position which you would like the most, if you had the choice?
(Translated from Noget om at ændre spillet, originally published March 19, 2016)

Do not copy the achievements of great people

It is my pleasure to pick up a quotation, which I originally thought was by the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, but actually seems to originate from the poet Muriel Strode:

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.

I am especially happy to use the quotation here because it fits so well with a headline, I collected at a lecture on creativity and innovation a number of years ago: "Do not copy the achievements of great people - become great in your own right".
It is so obviously right, when you look at it: if one has the desire to become great, it will actually not happen by following the path of others, copying their great achievements, but rather by following one's own path and discover new ground - and as a matter of fact it is quite possible that even if one has no ambitions to become great, one will becomes one's best self in the happiest way if not following a great role model's beaten path.
It may well happen that it will not be quite as easy - but it has a certain probability to become a more interesting, funnier and more exciting process.
(Translated from Kopier ikke de store, originally published July 23, 2013)