Recently I have been dipping into this great littlebook,Whatever you think, think the opposite, by Paul Arden who was an executive creative direcot at Saatchi and Saatchi.

Near the beginning of the book he tells this story:

Until the Mexico Olympics of 1968 the customary way for a high jumper to cross the bar was with his body parallel to it.
A lttle known athlete approached the bar which was set at a world record height of 7ft 4.5 inches. He took off, but instead of turning his body toward the bar, he turned his back to it.
He jumped higher than any person beofre by thinking the opposite to everyone else. Hi name was Dick Fosbury and the jump became known as the Fosbury Flop and is standard today.

Fosbury’s different thinking turned a flop into a success. I wonder what the crowd thought, I wonder if they sniggered expecting to see a flop. I can’t imagine the risk he was taking in front of all those people. Imagine the news coverge if he had got it wrong. |If it had not worked, the poor guy may never have been able to jump again, sent away in disgrace for making his country ‘the laughing stock’. He was literaly risking his entire future.

Sometimes issues seem unsolvable when we think conventionally.

Take a risk: go think differently.