Cheating Is Encouraged: How To Think Differently

Steve Jobs once said, “It’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy.”

Here’s how I interpret that quote… find a way to get the job done! Sometimes regimented naval practices might be appropriate. Sometimes you might have to think differently… like a pirate!

I wrote recently about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approach to Performance Review. In his book, Total Recall, he also references ways in which he thought differently.

When Schwarzenegger first went to the US on a work visa, he was frustrated at only being able to sign up for two College modules per year. He wouldn’t accept that. So, he looked at the small print. He discovered he was limited to two modules per College per year. The number of Colleges he could sign up with was unlimited.

Thinking like a pirate helped Schwarzenegger find a way to get the job done.

In sport, the Oakland Raiders NFL team of the 1970s/80s famously had one rule...

Raider Rule #1: Cheating is encouraged.

What did that mean? Think differently. Gain an edge. Find a way to get the job done.

One defensive player began applying strong adhesive to his gloves. A practice that was not specifically outlawed. In that season, he intercepted 13 passes and won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award. “I could catch a football behind my back on one knee,” he later said. “It was tremendous stuff.” Adhesives like this were banned by the league the following year.

Thinking like pirates helped the Raiders players find a way to get the job done.

Perspective

Under pressure, we often get locked into narrow ways of thinking and behaving.

We only see the rabbit. Or… we only see the duck. We get attached to that world view. We argue for the rabbit. Or… we argue for the duck. We fail to see the image for what it is… black lines on a white background that can be interpreted in many different ways.

What can you do, especially when under pressure, to take a step back, gain perspective, and think like a pirate?