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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Mavericks summary
David Giles Lewis, Jules Goddard & Tamryn Batcheller-Adams
How Bold Leadership Changes the World
28 mins
Table of Contents
Mavericks
Summary of 8 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 8
Anyone can develop their inner maverick.
Elon Musk. Jacinda Ardern. Steve Jobs. Oprah Winfrey. What do these people all have in common? They’re maverick leaders – independent thinkers who have often taken a rather unorthodox approach to leadership, with amazing results.
But we’re not going to talk about Elon Musk or any of the other famous maverick leaders. Instead, we’re going to focus on something a little bit different: ordinary mavericks. Normal people, just like you and me.
Yes, really. Anyone can be a maverick. It’s not just about your DNA, or whether or not your parents raised you to think for yourself. The authors of Mavericks studied a wide range of maverick leaders, from businesspeople to explosives experts. After hours of research and interviews, they concluded that it wasn’t just nature or nurture that made these people mavericks.
Of course, it’s true that some people are naturally more, well, unorthodox. Take Sidney Alford, for example. This explosives expert showed signs of a maverick nature from an early age. As a child growing up in London during the Second World War, Alford was fascinated by bombs. He would make fireworks using material he found on bomb sites. At school, he even made firecrackers from nitrogen triiodide and put them under the chair of a long-suffering teacher.
Alford later went on to have an extraordinary career as an engineer, creating devices that destroyed terrorist bombs.
Obviously, Alford was special. But the authors are convinced that we’re all born with innate maverick tendencies. Just think of how curious, experimental, and original children can be. As we go through life, it’s up to us whether or not we develop those tendencies.
In other words, you can choose to become a maverick. And it’s a choice you can make again and again.
At this point, you might be wondering, Do we all need to be mavericks? Is it really that important? Well, yes. According to the authors, it is important. We live in a divided and homogenized world, and mavericks are the solution. We need original thinkers, dissenters, and people who are capable of seeing things through the eyes of others.
The end goal is to create maverick societies – and a better world. But before we get ahead of ourselves with ideas for global transformation, we need to think about change on a smaller scale. First, let’s start with the individual. What makes a maverick a maverick anyway?
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What is Mavericks about?
Mavericks (2022) makes a case for maverick leadership. It shows that independent thinkers motivated by meaningful goals can transform their careers and communities – and that anyone can develop their inner maverick by focusing on five key characteristics.
Who should read Mavericks?
- Leaders interested in shaking things up
- Anyone who wants to become more resourceful or resilient
- People who want to change their organizations or communities for the better
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