Disrupt Success

"Every walking animal is driven
to its purpose with a whack."

In my previous post, Embrace Failure, I provided one interpretation of the above epigram from Heraclitus, (the enigmatic ancient Greek philosopher whom I consider to be the world's first "creativity teacher").

Like all of Heraclitus' epigrams, this one can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I believe there's another creative strategy here, and it is: "Disrupt Success."

Success can make us complacent. We think,

"Everything's fine; things are working — why change them?"

So we stop trying new approaches. Often it's only when our success is threatened that we seek to make improvements. As I've mentioned before, sometimes we need a good "whack on the side of the head" to get us focused on our purpose.

An example is the "sailing ship syndrome," named after the burst of innovation in the mid-19th-century sailing-ship industry. Only after it became obvious that the steamship would dominate the commercial sailing ship did the sailing ship reach its peak of efficiency.

Faced with the challenge of steam, sailing ships reduced the average westward crossing of the Atlantic from five weeks in 1840 to three weeks in 1860. Many of the changes that made this increase in speed possible could have been made decades earlier, but it was only when faced with elimination that the motivation was present to do so.

Moral: to remain successful, sometimes we need to oppose or destroy the very things that enabled us to be successful in the first place.

Question: What previously successful assumptions can you challenge?

Comments

[isabella mori]

it makes me think of the first year of marriages. things are rolling along just fine, thank you very much, no need to pay too much attention to it. and then, in some (ok, let’s be honest, in many) cases things start slipping. what are good ways to disrupt a good marriage?

it occurs to me that’s exactly how vaccinations work. a healthy body is disrupted with a small dose of illness, which then increases the body’s ability in the long run.

so what’s a good vaccination for a marriage? i remember the story of a couple whose sex life improved dramatically after he broke his right arm and his wife had to sleep on the other side of the bed.

marriage, one of the things most of us MOST want to be successful at. how else could it be disrupted in creative, invigorating ways, how alse could it be vaccinated?

[Roger von Oech]

Isabella: Great comment and extension. By the way, did the sex life improve because the man broke his right arm, or because he had to sleep on the other side of the bed? : --)

[isabella mori]

apparently it was simply because she ended up sleeping on the other side of him. oh, life can be so easy :)

[Jorge Castillo]

Great example by Isabella, and great insight by Roger! (ha ha ha) I think the wife is planning to broke him the left arm too!

I'm not sure but I think that this "success disrupting" is what Japanese call "kaizen". Attitude should be: "OK, this is perfect. Now let's make it better".

[Paul (from Idea Sandbox)]

Roger - I recently visited Athens and kept thinking about your book "Expect the Unexpected" as I was looking for traces of Heraclitus.

I love that you were able to pull lessons from him from the past. Brilliant!

[Roger von Oech]

Paul: Thanks for the kind words. Heraclitus lived in Ephesus, which is across the sea from Athens on the coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey).

[Personal Growth]

Hi,

The moral of your article, is a new concept. If studied and understood, the moral has its importance and truth. Sticking with the same success is never going to bring any change.
'Change is the only thing which never changes in this world'.
A writing to be appreciated!

Genevieve

[Ravi Vora]

Great article. I was just about to write something along these same lines. I am so happy right now with my relationship and job that I am becoming complacent. Time to be hurt and striving in order to create greatness!

[Bethe Hagens]

I'm just curious--since it's the focus of my own work--how come youre holding a rhombic triacontahedron in your picture at the top of the page.

Bethe