How to Zig When Everyone Else Zags

Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.

You have to back up your destination postcard with a good behavioral script. That’s a recipe for success. What you don’t need to do is anticipate every turn in the road between today and the destination. It’s not that plotting the whole journey is undesirable; it’s that it’s impossible. To think that you can plot a turn-by-turn map to the end, like

With a zag, you can start a new category that your customers, your employees, your partners—even your competitors—will help you build.

I don’t mean to imply that it’s never wise to be first. If we all wait for others to act, nothing original will ever be created. Someone has to be the pioneer, and sometimes that will pay off. First-mover advantages tend to prevail when patented technology is involved, or when there are strong network effects (the product or service becomes more va