5 Rules Great Rule Breakers Never Break

Da Vinci. DeLorean. Tesla. Madame Curie. Many of our greatest figures and luminaries were also great rule-breakers. Indeed, in the case of some musicians, rule-breaking even meant breaking the law. But while it might seem great success requires reckless disregard for convention, behavioral science suggests otherwise.

Indeed, rule-breaking for no reason or without structure could be an indicator of psychosis. Moreover, reckless rule-breakers often die younger, or even alone, because they take undercutting social norms too far. For that reason, great rule-breakers exhibit discipline when departing from convention.

In other words, rule-breaking has rules. Here are 5 of them:

1. Always master the rules first. Every great rule breaker first mastered his or her profession before innovating it. It's a myth that people like Picasso never bothered learning the basics of their trade before introducing something completely new. The great mathematician, Ramanujan, for example, never went to any prestigious boarding school and lived in poverty; however, he independently studied—and mastered—algebra from one of the most authoritative books on the subject at the time. And while most of Nicola Tesla’s work was not peer-reviewed in academic journals, he kept his finger on the pulse of the various academic fields adjacent to his own. The lesson to be learned is that great rule-breakers first seek to understand the conventional mindset of contributors to their domain—whether that’s in science, art, sports or business. Only after appreciating how great achievements in their world of expertise came about do they innovate or launch revolutions.
2. Never break a rule un-necessarily. Good sailors never row their oars until the sails lose their wind. In other words, rule-breaking (making waves) should only be done when necessary. Nevertheless, many leaders never heed this rule, to their peril. For example, almost every list of the “Worst CEOs in History” highlights how a new top leader came in, turned things upside down, and led their company to failure. Indeed, many top leaders believe high performance means instituting dramatic change—regardless of whether it makes sense. Overconfidence leads them to believe they can put their name on the success that might result and hide any failures as collateral damage. But since many such leaders break Rule Number 1 above also, they never fully understand what they’re changing. By contrast, great rule-breakers know if they’ve found a loyal audience for their work, a repeat customer for their product or an insatiable consumer of their goods. They realize changing things could be looking a gift horse in the mouth. In other words, success sometimes requires rule-breaking, but not always. If you’re providing something no one else is providing—and there are people who like it—don’t mess up a good thing!
3. Know when to break the rules. At the same time, change is often necessary when the fig leaves dictate. In the face of intense competition, the hazards of sticking with convention can even be deadly. Sony knows this all too well. Over the years, the once innovative technology leader has consistently gotten the timing wrong. Whether it was with Betamax and DVR tapes in the 80s, or Blu-ray and PlayStation more recently: Sony has launched rule-breaking, technology after technology on the assumption that timing doesn't matter. But it does. As a result of bad timing the company’s no longer a technology leader, making millions where innovators generate billions. Indeed, there’s a decent list of missed opportunities across the tech world in general. And many of those misses led to either corporate failures or what looks like permanent damage. Yet, even at an individual level, timing in breaking the rules matters. For example, the first 6 months in any new position is a period during which everyone’s watching you closely—some obsessively. If you’re expected to “adjust” to how things are done (convention), breaking the rules too early may ruin your career. Indeed, a recent study by behavioral scientists at Rice University shows that new CEOs are less likely to keep their jobs if they depart too dramatically, too quickly, from the traditions of their predecessors. The moral of the story is that rule-breaking has a time, a place and a window: don’t miss any of these!
4. Always replace the rule with a better one. In one of Agatha Christie’s novels, a new inspector on the scene asks his senior whether the deceased—an immigrant businessman who’d amassed a large fortune in a short amount of time before being murdered—ever did anything illegal. To which, the older inspector replies, “No. But he was the type of chap that, once he did something, you passed laws so others wouldn’t do the same.” In other words, great rule-breakers find that short-cut, that ace in the hole, that hidden catapult that’s effective, everyone else wants to follow suit. Eventually, they replace the old rule for the new. Apple has shown this in just about everything it’s done, especially with the iPhone. Indeed, even on an individual level, Nobel laureate, Richard Feynman had a learning technique that broke all the rules of note-taking and learning. He would write down everything he knew about a subject (which might be next to nothing), then add information under the heading every time he learned something. He would then test his knowledge by explaining it to an 8 year old child. If the process resulted in a new or better way of doing things—i.e., a ‘better rule’—he’d replace the old one he knew.
5. Never compromise what you broke the rules to achieve. Most successful companies hope to continue that legacy of success, long into the future. In the case of Motorola, that success was innovation. That’s what they seem to have originally set out to achieve. Indeed, following a certain, technological ancestral line, Motorola’s antecedents invented the cell phone, as well as the touch screen, apart from the pager. Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, the company would hold prestigious displays of their innovative tech, much like Tesla Motors does today. But somewhere along the line, Motorola’s leadership lost sight of what the company was really about. They stopped aiming to be an innovator. It started when they found a winning cell phone (the RAZR) and played the same tune so long, consumers got fatigued. As a result, greatness in rule-breaking no longer played a part in what Motorola did. Everything the company achieved was wiped out in a matter of months. The moral of the story is that rule-breaking is a means to an end, but often a means for survival as well.

While we’re all fascinated with people and companies that have broken all the rules, we shouldn't forget that rules are often established because they worked at some specific place, at some specific time. That doesn’t mean they aren't meant to be broken—far from it. Rules are meant to be broken, as long as we follow some solid rules while breaking them.