Mavericks at Work: Who’s Hiring?
Last month the Indianapolis Marketing Book Club chose Mavericks at Work as the book to read. I love books, and especially love business books. My house is full of them. I’m reading this one and just started Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time.
Mavericks at Work is one of those incredibly inspirational books, but I’m not sure whether or not I’m getting my ‘fill’ of them. Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and even my friends and family keep telling me to be a Maverick.
I am a Maverick at heart, but I’m not convinced the world needs so many mavericks. Do we?
Maverick: a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.
After all, don’t we need guys that are simply going to fix our cars, sweep the floors, keep the buses running, and watch the store? Can every business really afford to keep promoting Mavericks? It’s not that I have doubts about my own entrepreneurial spirit, I just have doubts that there are a lot of opportunities for Mavericks out there.
A good friend of mine asked how I like the book. I responded, “I love the book!”
Then I had to go back to work. It’s not that my work doesn’t allow me to be influential… it’s simply that
business as a whole doesn’t necessarily appreciate the maverick at work. They are the non-conformists, the outsiders, the troublemakers. Often, I think it’s the Maverick that ends up looking for the next opportunity – because it’s never where they just left.Am I wrong on this?