The Bold Ones

Disrupters rewrite history.

In 1991, Ken Kutaragi, a Sony engineer who also worked for Nintendo, skillfully and painstakingly convinced the CEO of Sony to invest in the video game industry. While Sony’s reluctance was strong, they eventually agreed to partner with Nintendo. Unfortunately, the very next day, Nintendo backed out of the deal. Kutaragi challenged his Sony boss to seek revenge in the form of producing Kutaragi’s newly designed PlayStation. The gaming consol not only changed the industry, it delivered 90% of Sony’s profits for several years, and put Kutaragi in the video game history books.

The story of the underdog changing the world in the face of the seemingly unchangeable status quo is nothing new. However, in today’s world, the next generation of underdogs won’t need to have ties to companies or offices. In fact, because of the power of social media and personal branding, anyone can disrupt the future from anywhere.

Take Michael Jordan. In 1984 he signed a $500,000 deal with Nike and created the most famous sneaker of all time – the Air Jordan. While, at the time, this type of partnership was new, today it’s the norm. YouTube, Instagram...