This conversation stopper should be a starter

This conversation stopper should be a starterThis conversation stopper should be a starterNobody does it that way.This line stops a conversation before it begins.If no one does it that way, it means it cant be done.If no one does it that way, it means well get ostracized or rejected.If no one does it that way, it means we dont know what results await us.If no one does it that way, it means were not going to do it that way.So we stick to whats worked in the past. We launch the saatkorn marketing campaign and make the seventeenth sequel to theFast and Furiousseries. We pay lip service to doing things differently, but our commitment to originality carries the same sincerity as a glib politician pledging campaign reform.When push comes to shove, we conform, rather than flout.Resisting conformity causes us emotional distress - literally. Aneurological studyshowed that non-conformity activates the amygdala and produces what the authors describe as a pain of independence.To avoid this pain , we become the by-products of other peoples behaviors. In our personal lives, everything from our clothes, favorite movies, religious beliefs, and the books we choose to read are influenced by others. Businesses chase the latest fad or trend and do things simply because their competitors are doing them.Inone representative study, participants were quizzed about a documentary they watched How many policemen were there when the woman got arrested? What welches the color of her dress? A few days after they took the test, they returned to the lab to get re-tested. This time, they were shown the responses of other participants, some of which had been intentionally doctored to be false.Roughly seventy percent of the time, the participants changed their answers and went along with the wrong answers given by the rest of the group. Even after the experimenters told the participants that the group answers were wrong, the fake social proof was so powerful that half of the participants stuck w ith the wrong answers when they were re-tested.Imitation is easy. It provides the path of least resistance. It can even deliver some results in the short term. But its a recipe for long-term disaster. As Warren Buffett put it, The five most dangerous words in business are Everybody else is doing it. Over time, imitat makes a trend obsolete. This monkey see, monkey do approach creates a race to the center. The companies who prevail are those that decide to buck the trend and explore the edges.Consider Patagonias 2011 advertising campaign.The company asked,Instead of doing what everyone does and asking people to buy from us, what if we asked themnotto buy from us? The result of this thought experiment wasa full-page ad in theNew York Timesthat ran on Black Friday. The ad featured a Patagonia jacket with the headline, Dont buy this jacket. With this ad, Patagonia became the only retailer in the country asking people to buy less on Black Friday. The ad worked in part because it support ed Patagonias mission of reducing consumerism and lightening environmental impact. But it also ended up helping the companys bottom line by attracting customers who shared the same mindset.Dick Fosbury used the same method to revolutionize the Olympic high jump. When Fosbury was training to be a high jumper, athletes would use a technique called the straddle method, where they would jump face down over the bar. But Fosbury, a 21-year-old from the middle of nowhere in Oregon, prided himself on doing things differently. He asked himself,What if I did the opposite of what everyone else is doing?Instead of jumping face down to the bar, what if I jumped backwards?His approach at first invited ridicule. A newspaper called him The Worlds Laziest High Jumper. To his coaches, the Fosbury flopas it came to be knownwas an outrageous and dangerous departure from well-established norms. They tried to convince Fosbury to drop it.Ignoring the naysayers, he kept gradually improving his technique an d earned himself a spot on the 1968 Olympic team. The laughs eventually turned into cheers as Fosbury proved his critics wrong and took home the gold medal at the Olympics - by doing the exact opposite of the best practice.Fosbury knew a secret missed by many others The low-hanging fruit has already been picked. You cant beat a stronger competitor by copying them. But youcanbeat them by doing what theyre not doing.The next time youre tempted to follow the herd, ask yourself, What if I did what no one else is doing? Even if you dont follow through, the thought process involved in generating the answer will likely produce unexpected breakthroughs.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the wo rld (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisarticlefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.