“Always stick to what makes you weird, odd, strange, different. That’s your source of power.” -Robert Greene

Your “weirdness” could actually be the superpower that distinguishes you from the field in a way that no one or nothing else can. Your “weirdness” could be the spark that moves the dial to greater success for an entire organization, industry, community—you name it.

But what is weirdness?

It’s what’s out of the ordinary. It’s unique. It’s unusual. To some, it may be strange or even gasp-worthy. But… it is necessary.

Imagine a world with one kind of music—maybe banjo/kazoo klezmer. I can only think of the number of crazed people secretly searching out something …anything… different.

Many workplaces resemble that banjo/kazoo world. Conformity is prized. But conformity yields one thing: boredom …in spades. And boredom in business turns your company and products into commodities. And commodities are things viewed as equivalent to other things. A is just like B. No distinction, no reason to care about one or the other.

Question: Why does any organization want that?

Yet, we ask employees to get in line and do as they’re told. Leave your “youness” at home. Come to work; switch off that stuff that makes you, you. We don’t want to know about your undersea murder mystery fetish or your love of fudge ripple mango surprise ice cream. We especially don’t want you to decorate your cubicle with your kid’s finger-painted depiction of your last foray into Scottish ceilidh dancing. What we want is order and one-size-fits-all.

Well, to hell with that.

Challenge. Be weird. Be unusual. Be uniquely you because what comes out of that is the next new product, process, or idea that changes everything. And changing everything is what makes the world go. Changing everything is what has always made the world go.

Without those weirdos, where would we be? Einstein, Curie, Chaplin, Hildegard, Gandhi, Churchill, Kahlo, Picasso, Tubman, King, Earhart, Beethoven, Hepburn, Jobs—all weirdos, all square pegs in round holes, and all people who changed things.

Where is your square peg-ness? Where is that weirdness of yours? Get it out there. Change is needed.

 “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” -Steve Jobs

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