Mavericks. It has nothing to do with U.S. presidential wannabe John McCain and everything to do with authentic originality, daring and guts.
Let me share with you a story. Growing up in Southern California my friends and I took clay skate wheels from roller skates and fastened them to boards and invented skateboarding. We took our Schwinn Stingray bicycles, the ones with the slick tires in the back, the banana seats and big U-shaped handlebars.
(Here’s a photo of an early Schwinn):
Original Schwinn Sting Ray bicycle
Not being content with a plain old bike, we pondered how to make it more like what we wanted: a motorcycle. Why not weld a crossbar onto the handlebars? Add a racing plate? replace those tires with knobby tires? take off the old seat and put on a seat from a 10-speed to make it more maneuverable; put motorcycle hand grips on it, paint the frame black…and suddenly we had a whole new bicycle, what we called bicycle motocross, or BMX. It looked something like this:
Schwinn Stingray modified into BMX bike
The lesson we learned was to create something new from what you had. Use imagination to bridge the gap. Be original. Innovate.
About the same time the first Chinese-made movies began to trickle into movie cinemas in California. The first was “Five Fingers Of Death,” which was not very well made but got my interest. A short while later, another Chinese martial arts movie hit U.S. cinema: Fists of Fury (known as ‘The Big Boss’ in Asia). Its star? an unknown named Bruce Lee.
The U.S. was introduced to a new thing it had never seen before: kung fu. Chinese martial arts. The difference between Lee and the other martial arts films was a “authenticity,” a belief and focus that made Lee more than an actor. He was living the martial arts and his genuine commitment came through in every move.
While some of my friends played baseball with me, none of them studied kung fu as I began to do. At age 9 I became one of the youngest in the local kung fu class and was introduced to Shaolin style fighting. I began to read a book written by Bruce Lee called ‘The Way of the Intercepting Fist’ (which in Cantonese is called Jeet Kune Do).
It was clear to me even at that young age that Lee was not an “actor” but was only living who he was, a martial artist/philosopher. After about 6 months of study I began to study Jeet Kune Do and also my dream was to move to China and study with real Shalolin monks. There was something about the focus and simplicity and incredible discipline, mentally and physically, that appealed to me as a youngster.
Growing up I would re-read Bruce Lee’s book, in junior high school and high school, and it was clearer to me then that he was a maverick, an original. I later learned he was the first Chinese actor to play a real person (himself) and not a stereotype in Hollywood films. Lee wasn’t somebody following the footsteps of others but expressed who he was, his talents and goals. Later I learned he went through a lot of rejections from Hollywood and others early in his career.
In business, I’ve been somewhat of a maverick, recognizing in 1994 that a new industry called the Internet was being born. I recognized in entrepreneurs like Marc Andreessen (created the browser), Jerry Yang (co-founder of Yahoo) and Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) a can-do spirit. When they started their companies I chronicled them as a business analyst and shared thoughts back and forth on how advertising could one day be a revenue source online. At the time there weren’t any ads on the Web, nobody cared about the Internet. I went on to invest in a company that made advertising better at a time when nobody cared about advertising on the Web. Several years later, Google acquired that company and today it is Google Ad Sense, the largest advertising network in the world, about 1/3rd of Google’s entire revenue.
These mavericks envisioned the future and built it. Yes, the industry has had its ups and downs but everyone uses the Web today, everyone emails, everyone buys online. And so here we are in 2009 in a world of ostrichs. Ostrichs are the birds that hide their heads in the sand for fear of the outside world. Business leaders are asking for government help. Governments are taking taxes and paying off banks for bad debts (which is a bad idea I believe).
And being a maverick I’m looking for mavericks. There are very few, even the ones who should be at the head of the pack. There’s a profound lack of leadership at companies, governments, and ideas.
I’ve been to China a few times, Hong Kong, about 10 years ago. I met with the senior leaders (chairman and his team) of China Development Bank and others. I was impressed by them and resolved to one day go back and perhaps partner with CDC on some ventures. Perhaps this year.
But I haven’t been to China for several years now. So it was refreshing for me to hear Jack Ma talk. Jack is the founder of Alibaba Group. He was in the U.S. on a discovery mission last week, meeting with different companies, from Google to Starbucks.
Jack is a maverick. The Alibaba story is one like many in the world of mavericks, one with rejection and doubt from others but belief in yourself and the future. 10 years ago Jack asked U.S. venture capital firms to invest in his idea, they all said no. It didn’t stop Jack. He went on to build Alibaba knowing that small businesses in China needed to be able to trade better using the Internet. Alibaba today employs 12,000 people and is growing. Jack is building value, not hiding under rocks.
So look at your situation, your “regular” basic bike, your roller skates, your companies and say “what can I do to be part of the solution, to pioneer value, to be a leader, be a maverick?”
Mavericks don’t work alone but they do resolve in themselves to see a vision and future and build it rather than discuss the millions ways it cannot be done.
After all, some 36 years after his death Bruce Lee is still a maverick. Nobody has come close to being as good at what he did. And that’s the legacy of doing something from your heart. It rings true and prevails though times may change its value continues to build. I leave you with this lesson from Bruce:
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