How To Become A Maverick: Do This One Thing

"It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box." -Arnold Schwarzenegger

Don't Break The Law

Rules are meant to be broken. But if you break the law, be ready to handle the consequences. Which can be a range of things from paying large fines to time behind bars.

You'll also face the stigma that many lawbreakers are riddled with. This includes being labeled a criminal and a series of other demeaning characteristics.

Having a criminal record can also ruin many opportunities for you. I know all this first hand. Because when I was in college, at the age of 21, I got caught shoplifting.

I was stealing $7 worth of canned goods. After I was found guilty, the court ordered me to pay fines to both the city and the store. Those fines cost me more than $500. Do you think it was worth the effort?

On top of paying hefty fines, I had to find a job. Do you think anyone was interested in hiring a guy who had a record for shoplifting?

In my case, no one was… except the U.S. Army.

Destroy The Rules

Have you ever rode a bike? For most people, it took some time to learn. But all in all, it's easy to do and once you know-how, you never forget.

Have you heard of the X Games? Watch a short video of BMX riders taking part in these events. You'll notice they don't ride a bike quite like you and I were taught. They do things a lot differently.

They jump off ramps into backflips, tailspins, bar spins, 360 spins, and many other unorthodox tricks and moves.

I'm willing to bet the individuals who invented the bicycle never intended for it to be ridden that way. A pro BMX rider's way of riding a bike took some innovation and imaginative thinking.

In other words, they took risks and had to break all the rules to create some of their own. Most importantly, in the process of breaking these rules, no laws were broken.

Learn The Rules, Then Break Them

A person who cared about you taught you the fundamentals of how to ride a bike. Once you got those down, you had the opportunity to do things the way you wanted to do them. I like to call that freestyling.

Freestyling is what the mavericks among us have done before you. Mavericks are those individuals who have become the most extraordinary among us all because they've chosen to take things one step further. The X Games didn't exist until someone decided to do more than just ride a bike up and down a hill.

Every day you wake up, you can choose to take things a step further than they've ever been taken before. Notable mavericks in recent history include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. All billionaires who believed computers and the internet could become more than what they were at the time. Now we couldn't imagine a world without a personal computer, smartphone, or social network.

Rules are often limitations set by others who may not have had enough imagination or vision. They didn't see the capabilities of something beyond what their own skillset allowed them to do. 

In turn, they then place those same limitations on others. Whether on accident or on purpose, do not be deterred by these limitations. They were made to be broken.

Show the world what you can do by choosing to let your greatness shine through. If done right, you too could have a lasting effect on the planet. Just remember to learn the rules first. Then break them all.