There seems to be a curious consensus among the founders of successful companies: Almost all of them are weird tinkerers who have a “little something on the waffle”.
It is unclear whether they were already born as eccentrics or only become so later. But one thing is certain: Almost all founders of successful companies are previously individual, special, angular, edgy and non-conformist – in other words, outsiders.
We’re all strange at first
But then that’s it – we are educated! From our parents, from our fellow human beings and from our institutions. You can like it or not.
Smooth society – the goal of education
No matter what attitude we have towards ourselves, our lives and our fellow human beings – we are the same in our basic needs. Put simply – we all need the organisation of our everyday life between the supermarket and the sewage plant.
For the Community
In the beginning – as little outsiders – we even show great commitment to small goals: We run and romp around and curiously try out all kinds of things to understand the world.
We are “intrinsically” (deep within ourselves) motivated. This usually changes in kindergarten. We are “socialized”: In other words, formed by our fellow human beings in such a way that we do not disturb the social process.
The “intrinsic” motivation fades
The consequence of parenting? The urge to look for challenges and new things is decreasing. Driven just a moment ago by the desire to discover and learn – let us adapt. We learn to motivate ourselves for things outside ourselves.
We are “extrinsically” motivated – we learn and work for school grades or money, for example. Our natural commitment decreases with age on the road to adulthood. The exception is the outsiders.
Large child heads with a lot of potential
It almost seems as if it is necessary to be a “weird bird” to become a researcher or founder.
Unable to adapt always and everywhere in the way that would be socially appropriate.
The outsiders and oddballs who are smiled at at best and ridiculed at worst.
The world has changed – the era of the outsiders has begun!
We still consume everything we can between the supermarket and the sewage plant – but we no longer have to run into each other for this.
We buy online. We communicate on the net. We chat on the net and meet less often than before. Yeah, we hardly ever talk anymore. When we meet other people, it is always more because we really want to.
Our social life is being turned upside down by digitalisation and with it its old rules.
But – other rules are followed by another type of person. If it weren’t, we would still be sitting by the fire in front of our cave. Every innovation changes the character and lifestyle of people.
The new community
Internet and smartphones have completely changed our world. We know more people than before – at least digitally. People from far away. We are on the road digitally in the world – as friends and as consumers.
Digital global & analog local.
There is less contact “in real life”. Consequently, we have to adapt less, actually adapt to others. Pessimists fear the “isolation” caused by digitalization. I say: Hopefully they exist!
The adapted society was and is always only good for those who live and participate according to its rules. People who work. The number of mental illnesses speaks for itself.
The birth of a new order
A new social order is just being born: the digitalized social order!
New technologies ensure that we live and work differently. People are responding to the changes by changing their habits. They go into “resonance”.
You are introspective. They have started to meditate, netiquette is one of the keywords of our time.
Sharing, re-use and sharing of consumer goods is being done to such an extent that the major producers have long since begun to be revered for their products with all their “predetermined breaking points”.
The individuals reach for the sceptre of power
They have begun to connect. Digitisation allows global communities of interest to be established. The world is full of people who are digitally networked and understand that “everyone is in the same boat”.
We are about to enter the post-capitalist era. Paradoxically triggered by the greatest innovation of capitalism – digitalization!
The gain of “isolation”
As people increasingly have to adapt to fewer and fewer others, they more and more often remain unadapted children’s minds – and retain their “intrinsic” motivation.
They remain rather the “strange birds” that they were in the beginning. They can become more and more involved with the things they want to learn. They have to give up their individuality less for the sake of adaptation.
I see this as a complete break with the old social order. For me this is the beginning of a new age.
The “Many Founding Era “
In a time in which we have to adapt less and less, there will be more and more “strange birds”. People who follow their “intrinsic” motivation – realize something they want to do deep down inside themselves. Something they believe in.
Digitisation is bearing its first fruits
The world is already filled with people who work and live differently than generations before. With their work, they sometimes serve microscopically small yet global markets and at the same time realize a colorful variety of innovative start-up ideas.
It is exactly those inventors who live the new lifestyle of the “digital bohemian”. They are the answer to digitization: the “seekers of meaning” and “self-actualizers”.
A movement that has long since made its way to the mainstream and will carry away many old rules.
A toast to those who have one “by the waffle”!
The ones with the strange ideas – you should listen to them especially well. They are the ones who drive tomorrow’s innovations. It is they who, with their sustainable ideas and inventions, have the potential to slow down the damage of industrialisation.
I collect visions for a new world. Especially the ones about the “weird birds”. That’s why I am the utopia collector!
Learn more about my project “Reality, Utopia and Gloss” and here who I am.
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