The Creative Contrarian

Wise Fool Strategy # 12Drop What's Obsolete

“Every ‘right’ idea eventually becomes the ‘wrong’ one.”

— Peter Drucker, Austrian/American Writer

The Wise Fool believes that every strategy you employ that leads to success can over time become counterproductive and possibly lead to failure. For example, what a coach says to his players to motivate them in the preseason could backfire if said four months later when preparing the team for the playoffs. What produces results when a company is in start-up mode can be destructive when that company is expanding into mature markets. The sparkling characteristics that a child actor brings to a part when she is seven can work against her when she grows up and auditions for adult roles.

The Wise Fool urges us to continually update our assumptions and to make sure the strategies we use are suited to the problems and opportunities before us. This, however, is easier said than done. That's because there is a tendency for ideas, rules, and beliefs to remain in existence even though the original reasons for their generation have gone away. Thus, they can be very difficult to eliminate. Here are some examples.

There is an adage that the Prussian King Frederick the Great (1712–1786) lost the Battle of Jena, which was fought in 1806. The implication? For 20 years after his death, the army perpetuated his successful organization instead of adapting ...