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Disruption Isn't Just for Tech Bros
The Bold Ones has quickly become the playbook for innovators across industries. Endorsed by bestselling author Adam Grant as "a masterclass in innovation," this book has been making waves since its 2023 release. While traditional business books often focus on corporate strategies, Kanungo takes a refreshingly human approach, examining how individual disruptors throughout history have upended industries and changed culture. From Drake's unlikely rise in hip-hop to ancient female pirates who commanded 80,000 men, these stories reveal a universal truth: the most powerful disruptions come from individuals, not corporations. In what Kanungo calls "The Era of the Ones," companies now attach themselves to individuals rather than the reverse-a fundamental shift in how innovation happens that makes this book essential reading for anyone who wants to make an impact.
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The DNA of Bold Ones: Unleashing Your Inner Disruptor
When Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi challenged his company's leadership after Nintendo abandoned their partnership, asking "Are you going to sit back and accept what Nintendo did to us?", he embodied the spirit that defines all true innovators. This confrontation sparked Sony's creation of the PlayStation, which would eventually dominate the gaming industry with PlayStation 2 becoming the most popular console ever made, selling over 155 million units.
Bold Ones appear throughout history in every field-from Margaret Thatcher in politics to Steph Curry in basketball to Mr. Beast in entertainment. These disruptors share a fearlessness that allows them to challenge incumbents, dismiss traditional thinking, and reinvent themselves. They don't just respond to change; they actively create it.
We're living in the "Era of the Ones" where the most significant disruptions come from individuals, not corporations. From YouTubers creating consumer goods companies to solo writers generating millions through blogs, individual innovators now hold unprecedented power to reshape industries from within or outside traditional structures.
Being a Bold One doesn't require entrepreneurship-innovation can happen within existing organizations, as Kutaragi proved when the PlayStation delivered 90% of Sony's profits for years. Whether inside or outside traditional structures, what matters is the internal drive to upset the status quo.
The path to becoming a Bold One begins with feeding your insatiable need to innovate-that drive you already possess when you stay up late researching new technologies or daydreaming about industry transformation. Next, unleash your hidden talent-what you do off the clock often reveals your truest skill. Remember that only the bold change history-disruptors have always seen and executed differently. Finally, unlock your individuality-people follow people, not companies-and collaborate with incumbents to combine your fresh outlook with an organization's resources.
If you don't express your creativity, someone else will, and you'll watch the marketplace change without you. When you embrace this path, you stop thinking somewhere else will make you better; instead, you make anywhere better.
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When Success Becomes Your Greatest Enemy
In 2016, hip-hop gatekeepers Ebro and Rosenberg interviewed an unknown Cardi B on Hot 97's influential show. They dismissed her as an ex-stripper with poor English who couldn't rap. Their disapproval could have ended her music ambitions. Instead, within a year, Cardi B released "Bodak Yellow," earning critical acclaim and numerous awards. By 2018, she'd broken Beyonce's record for simultaneous top-10 songs by a female artist, and by 2019, she became the first female solo artist to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
The better you are at something, the more likely you'll become a doubter of someone else's innovation. Past success kills innovation because you've already established efficient pathways to achievement-you know how to secure financing, please customers, and arrange systems smoothly. These shortcuts become difficult to unlearn or see beyond.
"Best practices" are a myth that hinders innovation. During my time at Deloitte, I initially relied on repackaging successful tactics from previous clients, but these approaches consistently failed. Only when I started treating each project as a unique opportunity with no preset rules did clients respond positively. Like Cardi B, who broke all conventional social media rules with her raw authenticity, true innovation comes from abandoning the playbook and creating something entirely new.
There's a critical difference between pursuing excellence and becoming an "expert." When you become defensive about your expertise-your preferred software, methodologies, or processes-you've crossed into dangerous territory. Defensiveness blinds you to new possibilities. Ask yourself: "Am I defensive about my expertise?" If you're utterly certain about how to accomplish something to the point of dismissing alternatives, you're ripe for disruption.
We're addicted to success and reluctant to abandon what once worked. NBA player Russell Westbrook exemplifies this trap-chasing impressive personal statistics (triple-doubles) while his teams consistently lose. His identity became so wrapped up in these achievements that he couldn't adapt his style to actually win games. The more successful your former tools and techniques were, the more they become ingrained in your identity.
To avoid this trap, proactively reduce your own status. Drop credentials from your name, place yourself in "lower-status" situations, substitute stories for titles, listen to newcomers, and stay current with marketplace innovations. The question is: Are you willing to constantly start at zero? Disruption requires leaping into the unknown and being willing to know nothing as you pioneer something new.
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Seeing Beyond Your Core: The Innovation Horizon
When ESPN fired Bill Simmons in 2015 for being "disrespectful" and challenging traditional sports journalism norms, they made a $200 million mistake. Simmons went on to launch The Ringer-essentially Grantland 2.0-maintaining his rebellious style and even recruiting many of the same writers. His success came from accurately reading cultural shifts in sports media, recognizing audiences wanted authenticity and real opinions rather than traditional "unbiased" reporting.
To disrupt like Simmons, you need new perspective-glasses that help you see coming disruption even when others don't understand. This requires stepping outside your current career position to understand the world more holistically.
The "Illusion of the Core" is the trap of hyperfocusing on your specialty-your supposed super-ability. While there's wisdom in focus, defining yourself too narrowly ("I'm a journalist, so I write stories") limits your perspective and potential. Organizations make the same mistake by focusing exclusively on core products or audiences.
Innovation begins by asking a deep, scary question: "Where is the world going?" This catalyst moves us beyond our core focus to consider broader marketplace shifts. Many people and companies prefer the comfortable illusion that the world isn't changing and their core competencies will protect them. To avoid ESPN's mistake, we must confront this question today.
To escape the hypnotic effect of the Illusion of the Core, welcome uncertainty and explore the fringes. Investigate emerging technologies, platforms, or methods that intrigue you but seem intimidating. Engage with Reddit forums, Twitter threads, podcasts, and other sources that expose you to new ideas. The most disruptive concepts often emerge from "the loneliest places"-basements, coffee shops, subreddits, and private Slack groups.
Innovation doesn't require immediate radical transformation. When consulting with Walmart executives, I encouraged them to "dent the outside"-gradually chip away at the boundaries of their retail expertise to connect with disruption's jet stream. Like learning to base jump only after mastering skydiving, innovation happens through incremental steps. My own transition from accountant to innovation strategist happened gradually-moving from accounting to consulting within Deloitte, then speaking externally before launching my independent career.
Using Vygotsky's learning model, innovation happens most effectively in the "Zone of Proximal Development"-the area just beyond what we already know but within reach with help. Rather than leaping to the completely unknown, move adjacent to your core skills. Bill Simmons transitioned from writing to podcasting, leveraging his personality and storytelling. Cardi B moved from dancing to Instagram to reality TV before rap. These adjacent moves gain buy-in and create quick wins.
Innovation often comes through remixing-reorganizing existing elements with just enough personal flair to create something novel yet feasible. The late fashion designer Virgil Abloh quantified this as the "3% Rule"-adding just 3% difference creates meaningful innovation while remaining accessible. As the first African American artistic director at Louis Vuitton, Abloh transformed fashion with subtle innovations like putting holes in handbags and elevating graphic tees to high fashion.
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Building Your Cult: From Fringe to Mainstream
In the early 1800s, Ching Shih rose from humble beginnings as a flower-boat girl to become history's most successful pirate. After marrying pirate captain Zheng Yi (on the condition she'd own half his fleet), she helped organize 50,000 pirates into a strict hierarchical structure with codes of conduct. Following her husband's death, she expanded their empire to command 1,800 ships and 80,000 men-more vessels than several modern navies combined.
Two centuries later, Rihanna followed a similar disruptive path in beauty and fashion. Recognizing the industry's failure to serve diverse skin tones, she launched Fenty Beauty with 40 different shades, generating $100 million in 40 days. She then challenged Victoria's Secret's dominance in intimate apparel with her inclusive Savage Fenty show, celebrating women of all colors and sizes.
To truly influence the world, you need more than customers-you need a cult following of dedicated believers. The most influential brands are often associated with iconic individuals rather than companies: Apple with Steve Jobs, Tesla with Elon Musk, Microsoft with Bill Gates. These founders inspire almost religious devotion among followers.
Building such a following requires focusing on the overlooked and marginalized. While Victoria's Secret dominated by catering to one body type, true disruptors embrace those on the fringes. Like King David, who gathered outcasts and criminals while hiding in the mountains and later made them his elite fighters, Bold Ones build fierce loyalty by embracing those others ignore.
Create a "halo effect" by doing something so spectacular that everything else you touch seems blessed with excellence. When Kanye West left Nike for Adidas in 2013, he didn't just become a brand ambassador-he created the "Yeezy" lifestyle sneaker line that revitalized the entire Adidas brand. To create your own halo effect, build a "personal moat"-a unique combination of skills, locality, or interests that creates your personal monopoly.
Today's fractured media landscape makes it easier than ever to reach niche communities. Unlike Ching Shih who had to spend time with individuals one-on-one, modern technology allows you to scale your influence globally. Social media lets people from across the world hear your thoughts, while smartphones have become the "new church," hyper-customized to each individual. To capitalize on this opportunity, find the perfect medium that matches your personality and skills, whether video, audio, writing, or another format. Most importantly, you must "ship" your content-actually clicking publish rather than just creating it.
The paradox of piracy is a simple but powerful concept: when you aim for the fringe, you ultimately attract the masses. By creating a following so deep and devout through authenticity, focusing on a niche audience rather than trying to appeal to everyone, you eventually create something so worthwhile that everyone wants to join. If you want to disrupt an incumbent, look for fringe groups they've overlooked. If you want to upset an industry, find one fan and deliver insane value to them.
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When Ridicule Becomes Revolution
Gandhi's quote "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" perfectly captures the journey of Jamsetji Tata, "The Greatest Business Tycoon of India." Despite humble beginnings with no family name or trust fund, Jamsetji built an empire that disrupted the world economy. After discovering cotton's potential during a trip to Hong Kong in 1859, he returned to British-occupied India with a bold vision: Indians could revolutionize cotton production and loosen Britain's economic stranglehold.
While others scoffed, Jamsetji purchased a bankrupt mill, turned it around for profit, then made the seemingly ridiculous decision to establish his Empress Mill thousands of kilometers inland in Nagpur, away from established ports. This counterintuitive move proved wildly successful, laying the foundation for the iconic Tata Group. To the occupying British, Jamsetji's ideas seemed like jokes-until they realized they were the punchline.
Disruption always begins as something hilarious, fringe, or almost pathetic-like watching someone else play video games, which once seemed like a depressing activity when you couldn't get your turn with the controller. But platforms like Twitch, which Amazon bought for nearly $1 billion in 2014, now have 140 million daily active users. All major disruptions start as seemingly silly ideas that most people dismiss: automobiles ("slower than horses"), SMS messaging ("why not just call?"), Airbnb ("staying in strangers' homes?"), and creators ("videotaping yourself in your bedroom?").
According to Peter Weinberg's Contrarian Matrix, the only way to create significant value is to be both right AND contrarian. If you're wrong but follow consensus, no one cares because everyone was wrong. If you're right and follow consensus, you'll make modest gains like the average 8% market return. Being wrong and contrarian means people will laugh and you'll never get the last laugh. But being right and contrarian-betting against the market and winning, recognizing talent others miss, or pursuing an uncommon path-is where untapped value exists.
To be effectively contrarian, implement Israel's supposed "Tenth Man Rule" (referenced in World War Z): if nine leaders agree, the tenth must take the devil's advocate position to challenge groupthink. By asking "What are we missing?", "What if we're wrong?", and "What if they're right?", you can avoid dismissing potentially valuable contrarian ideas.
Innovation typically sneaks up on us while we're fortified in our castles of traditional thinking. What seems creepy or weird today often becomes tomorrow's standard. Facebook's newsfeed initially felt invasive by aggregating everyone's activities in one place. Amazon storing credit card information, location tracking, disappearing photos, coworking spaces-all were once considered strange before becoming normal.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz asks after pitch days: "What was the obviously bad idea that was actually a good idea?" Society rewards cynicism and quick dismissal, but the ideas we immediately reject as wrong often become central to our lives later. Constantly asking "What's the obviously bad idea that's a hidden good idea?" may be the closest thing to an innovation hack.
Being contrarian doesn't guarantee being right-consensus isn't always wrong. But value only comes from being both contrarian and correct. Jeff Bezos has had massive failures (Crucible, LivingSocial, Pets.com) costing billions, but as he says, "A single big winning bet can more than cover the cost of many losers."
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Mining for Innovation's Hidden Treasures
Michele Romanow discovered a billion-dollar secret while judging pitches on Dragons' Den. When a father-son duo sought $100,000 for 20% equity in their wooden iPhone case business, she saw a lose-lose proposition and transformed it into something revolutionary. Instead of taking equity, she offered the money as a loan with modest interest, asking only to review their social media engagement. This insight-that entrepreneurs needed capital for predictable ad campaigns while investors wanted reliable returns-led her to cofound Clearco, which has since funded 7,000 companies with $3 billion.
Isaac Newton didn't invent gravity; he discovered it. Similarly, disruption comes from uncovering truths waiting in plain sight, buried by psychological hindrances and traditionalism. These secrets, once revealed, make everyone wonder why they couldn't see them before.
Research from Monitor Deloitte reveals a critical innovation paradox: while transformational initiatives generate over two-thirds of all new value, companies typically invest only 10% of resources there, preferring safer, incremental improvements. Drawing from this research and Peter Thiel's work, I've created the "Iceberg of Secrecy" model that categorizes secrets into three value tiers: Obvious Secrets (providing 10% of innovation value), Hard-to-Find Secrets (20%), and Deepest and Darkest Secrets (70%).
Obvious secrets are loopholes-small anomalies that offer immediate value but only about 10% of innovation's long-term worth. Take Sam Bankman-Fried, who became the world's youngest billionaire by exploiting price differences in crypto exchanges across countries, automating the process until his wealth grew predictably. These secrets can be as simple as Excel automations or a single word change in marketing that dramatically improves ROI. The beauty of obvious secrets? They're everywhere and accessible to everyone.
To uncover harder secrets, you must venture beyond your company to explore customer psychology. Howard Schultz transformed coffee from a cheap commodity into a luxury experience after observing Italian espresso culture and realizing Americans were already customizing their coffee more than any other food item. This insight led to Starbucks' empire of 31,000 stores across 80 countries. To find these secrets, stalk customers (ethically) and document their behaviors in detail. Record everything. Pay attention to weird habits-do customers consistently make the same mistake with your software?
The most valuable secrets emerge when you venture so far outside your industry that you identify patterns across seemingly unrelated fields. Consider connections between government policies and music trends, or social media and economics. Cai Lun revolutionized human communication by inventing paper after observing how wasps build their homes-a deep secret discovered by watching insects. As Isaac Asimov noted, breakthroughs often begin with "That's funny..." rather than "Eureka!"
Michele Romanow's Clearco solved banking's gender bias problem unintentionally. By automating funding decisions based on social media campaign ROI rather than human judgment, Clearco ended up funding ten times more women-owned businesses than average VC firms. While others discussed sexism in funding for decades, Romanow solved it by getting her hands dirty-spending countless hours in the Dragons' Den trenches, evaluating pitch after pitch until she unearthed this billion-dollar insight.
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The Power of One: Building Your Personal Legacy
In 1995, Mary Meeker released "The Internet Report," a groundbreaking document that brought financial data on internet companies to the public. Working at Morgan Stanley, she saw the internet's potential when few did. Despite the 2000 internet crash and appearing on Fortune's cover questioning Wall Street's trustworthiness, Meeker persisted with her annual reports. Eventually crowned "Queen of the Internet," she built her own venture capital firm, Bond Capital.
While disruption seems to happen in dramatic moments like iPhone launches, these windows are created through consistent action and repetition. Kevin Kelly's 2008 essay suggested needing 1,000 true fans paying $100 each to make a living. By 2020, Li Jin reduced this to 100 fans paying $1,000 each. Now we're in the age of ONE-a single insane fan who champions your ideas can launch your disruption. Technology has eliminated gatekeepers and intensified the value of each connection, making this possible.
To build your cult of one, you must establish a personal brand separate from your employer. A colleague at Deloitte ("Hitch") struggled after being let go despite his expertise because no one knew him-his work was branded "Deloitte," not "Hitch." Personal brand equity provides job security and benefits employers through authentic promotion. CEO James Carbary recognizes this, paying employees to develop their personal brands as "mini-billboards" for his company.
You need an angle people can mentally latch onto and share with others. Mary Meeker's Internet Trends Report was digestible and shareable. Obama's 2008 campaign distilled his complex story into a single word poster: HOPE. For a provincial parks revenue project at Deloitte, we used drones to create footage-not because we needed them, but because they were trendy and got people talking. The shareable angle doesn't even need to relate to your core product.
While marketing races toward scale and automation, we're leaving gold on the table by forgetting the importance of one dedicated fan. When you overdeliver value to that single fan, treating them like they're the only one who matters, you create a champion who will support you all the way to success. Always acknowledge every fan and reply to every comment. Share your stage and status by inviting followers to co-host events. Bring in fans as "cosigners" on projects, giving them recognition.
The internet has evolved from Web 1.0's simple information sharing to Web 2.0's social platforms where tech giants profit from our data. Now Web 3.0 enables individuals to reclaim their digital identity through crypto-enabled ledgers that track interactions. This new technology allows creators to see exactly who their loyal fans are and reward them as co-owners and investors in their success.
Bob Goff, bestselling author who prints his real cell phone number in his books, exemplifies the power of one-to-one connectivity. Despite receiving hundreds of calls daily, he continues this practice because he understands its impact. The balance of power has shifted dramatically-individuals are now disrupting incumbents. More than ever, Goliaths fear Davids as individual creators cannibalize entire corporations.
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Engineering Your Breakthrough Moment
Hasan Minhaj's bold decision to host the White House Correspondents' Dinner when others declined-including President Trump and James Corden-proved transformative for his career. Despite the risk of alienating half the country with his comedy, Minhaj delivered a showstopping performance that garnered global headlines. The timing couldn't have been better, with his Netflix special "Homecoming King" releasing just weeks later, multiplying his exposure. When Netflix called again, Minhaj invested in creating a proof-of-concept for a new show, renting an abandoned studio and producing a pilot over a single weekend. This bold move secured him a 32-episode contract for what would become "The Patriot Act."
Like professional surfers who spend 95% of their time waiting and only 5% actually riding waves, success often comes from recognizing and catching perfect moments of opportunity. These "Lightning Strikes" are windows when everything aligns perfectly, allowing your risk to yield outsized returns. Landing these moments can transform your career, launch a company, or catapult you to fame.
Minhaj's career demonstrates how success can cascade: from writing for Jon Stewart to discovering his unique storytelling-comedy blend, to Netflix success, to hosting the White House Correspondents' Dinner, to landing "The Patriot Act." Unlike athletic hot streaks that happen in a single game, career hot streaks typically span years. Professor Dashun Wang's research on 25,000 artists, directors and scientists revealed that hot streaks aren't random but follow a pattern: they begin with a period of exploration (discovering and playing) followed by exploitation (laser-focusing on what you're best at).
The exploration phase is about finding convergences between your talents and market opportunities. During this time, focus on discovery and play rather than winning. By the end, you should understand your unique strengths and how they apply to the marketplace. Your superpower might emerge at the intersection of your role and an intangible quality, or even from seemingly unrelated hobbies.
To prepare for your hot streak: stack your gifts (combine multiple skills to create a unique niche where only you excel), apply unique gifts to unique opportunities (like combining journalism with web design), and practice on small waves (place incremental bets on yourself to build your innovation muscle). While exploration may seem like a specific time period, it should be ongoing. Keeping a gratitude journal helps capture moments of serendipity and document what you enjoy.
The "Matthew effect" explains how early success compounds: researchers with early citations receive more attention and funding, allowing them to do more research and gain even more citations. This "rich get richer" phenomenon applies across fields-from academics to athletes to business. The Expectation Effect further amplifies this-when people expect someone to succeed, they're more likely to.
To engineer your own Lightning Strike: set a date and publicly commit; create intensity around your launch; build a bigger spotlight by involving others; promise more than you should; visualize your impact; and repeat consistently. For many people, sharing themselves with the world is terrifying. Whether it's publishing content, releasing an app, or speaking up in meetings, you must overcome that fear of exposure. Your work needs attention to create impact, so complete your preparation and then take that final crucial step-hit "publish."
Sometimes the worst moments present the greatest opportunities. When the pandemic devastated the keynote speaking industry in 2020, most speakers either canceled events or delivered poor-quality virtual presentations. I saw this disruption as an opportunity that aligned with my strengths in video and digital presentation. My team and I rented a 700-person theater, invested in Hollywood-quality cameras, and created exceptional virtual keynotes. By year's end, I'd spoken at more conferences than in 2019, and 2021 became my best speaking year ever.
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Creating Cultural Disruption That Outlasts You
In 1479 BC Egypt, Hatshepsut began as regent for her young stepson Thutmose III after her husband's death. Rather than serving temporarily, she claimed the throne fully as pharaoh-an unprecedented move for a woman. To establish legitimacy, she cleverly claimed divine selection, even suggesting she was conceived by the gods themselves. Despite challenges, Hatshepsut became one of Egypt's most powerful rulers, overseeing peaceful prosperity, expanding trade, and creating monumental architecture like the Deir el-Bahri temple complex.
Today's society fixates on business disruption through technology, imagining young entrepreneurs upending industries from their laptops. But true disruption extends beyond business and technology-it's about challenging the status quo wherever it exists. Shakespeare disrupted arts and society by uniting elites and masses through stories. Henry Ford disrupted industrial processes with the assembly line. Gandhi disrupted colonialism through peaceful resistance.
Cultural disruption represents the ultimate achievement-when an individual embeds themselves so deeply in a community's consciousness that they change how we view life itself, outlasting even their own existence. Their influence continues through the altered patterns of our minds, haunting our decisions and activities long after they're gone.
When Vince Carter dominated the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest with moves never before seen, his performance didn't just win a competition-it inspired an entire generation of Canadian basketball players. Despite Canada's relatively small population of 30 million, it later produced a disproportionate number of NBA players like Jamal Murray, Andrew Wiggins, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This "Vince Carter Effect" demonstrates how powerful visual impact can outlast one's own activities.
The most powerful person in any room is always the storyteller. From comic book superheroes to ancient myths, stories become the iconic ideas that inspire and unite humanity. Hatshepsut leveraged storytelling by creating supernatural tales about her divine conception by the god Amun, capturing her people's imagination. The greatest stories don't just inspire-they create expansive universes where others can contribute their own narratives.
Your storytelling begins with why you're doing this work, how you got here, or why it matters to you personally. You must identify what you're fighting against-whether it's inefficiency, waste, pollution, or another problem. Name that villain clearly and rally followers to your cause. To penetrate someone's mind, you must infiltrate their imagination with something slightly magical, something just beyond ordinary that sparks imagination.
Cultural disruption requires building something that outlasts your core offering. Michael Jordan transformed from basketball GOAT to footwear icon-his Air Jordans are still worn by kids who've never seen him play. To create lasting cultural change, you need to build something more viral than your product and surround yourself with other innovators.
Innovation is contagious and spreads in proximity. As Luke Burgis explains through mimetic desire, we often want what others want. When you start innovating, you ignite innovation desires in others who see your rewards and recognition. Silicon Valley keeps attracting innovators like a magnet. Russell Simmons's Def Comedy Jam brought together comedians who challenged each other, producing legends like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle.
MAYA stands for "Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable"-offering the most outlandish version possible while keeping it palatable to your audience. When automatic elevators were introduced, people refused to use them without operators. The solution was adding a soothing recorded voice giving instructions and a big red stop button. These safety mechanisms may seem unnecessary to Bold Ones, but they help others take steps toward disruption.
In Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, resurrection changes everything. Hatshepsut died around 1458 BC, but her legacy lived on. She disrupted an entire civilization, paving the way for Cleopatra 1,500 years later and perhaps for all female leaders since. When you sacrifice yourself on the altar of disruption, your legacy reverberates in others' next moves. Bold Ones don't wait for permission-they reshape the world as needed.
