I admire people who do things ‘out of the box’, daring, risky. It seems some people do not care what others think. And yet, if it works, many people admire them.

So why do we worry so much about what others think? It might just be holding us back from success beyond our imagination.

Consider this story about Kenneth Cole, as heard about here. He was just getting started designing shoes and wanted to showcase his shoes at a big industry show in NYC. He didn’t have the money to go about it the usual way, which would be to rent and set up in a hotel room or to rent out a large showroom nearby the hotel. He decided to park a truck right where all of the purchasers at this event would be going through.

But parking a large (40 footish) truck in the middle of NYC isn’t something that can really happen. So he called the right people and asked how could he get a permit. He was told that permits are only given out for a company shooting a feature length film, for emergencies, and maybe one or two other options.

He changed the name of the company to include the word ‘production’ and applied for a permit to shoot a feature film over the desired days.

It worked! The permit was approved. They shot some film (and sometimes had a crew with a camera with no film in the camera) and he got the word out about his shoes.

How many people would have the guts to even try this?

Not many. And maybe that’s why most of us go about our days thinking we can’t do x, y, or z.