We stand sideways.
We work in corridors and abandoned spaces.
We get up early and go to sleep late.
We’ve been mocked.
We’ve been turned away by people that won’t have us.
We are relentless.
We dream it, we make it, we break it, we fix it.
We create.
We destroy.
We wreck ourselves day in and day out and yet we stomp that one breakthrough or find that one line that keeps us coming back.
We progress.

These words, with one or two small modifications, come direct from the mission statement of an innovator. A disruptive innovator. Jake Burton, one of the pioneers of the snowboarding world.

I know a lot of skiers and I know quite a few snowboarders. For the most part, they don’t get along so well. For me, the antagonism between the two communities says a lot about the difference between Innovation World (the underdog snowboarders), and Operation Excellence World (the elitist, have-all-the-right-equipment-follow-the-rules skiers).

The world needs both types. And both need to get along.

Snowboarding is now an industry. It is also entering Operational Excellence world. The antagonism with the skiers dissipates…

…And leaves a growing vacuum for the dis-affected, the under-resourced and the unpopular. The next mutiny of sideways-standing rule-breakers.