The Crazy Way

My Dad used to say, "There are three ways: the right way, the wrong way, and the the Agnew way."

Agnew was a hard-headed store manager that treated his employees like an overseer. He could not see his employees as people. He thought everyone who worked for him was stealing money from his wallet. He was an asshole.

But the Agnew way was really a mix between the wrong way and the right way. Agnew understood discipline. He understood what it took to be successful. He understood how to work. Both my Dad and I learned a tremendous amount from him.

So I am adjusting my Dad's saying, "There are three ways: the consensus way, the dumb way, and the crazy way."

Doing things the consensus way is easy. It requires no thought, no questions. You do what everyone else is doing. There is a good chance the consensus way is the right way.

Doing things the dumb way is stupid. It requires doing something you know is wrong. Most people do not do things the dumb way. (Note: The dumb way is sometimes refereed to as the American way, the Chinese way, the Albanian way or the WannabeBastiat way.)

The crazy way is the fun way. It requires taking a chance, being a man, courage. It requires flipping the finger at consensus at the risk of doing something dumb.

Sometimes the crazy way leads to progress. Sometimes it makes you look like a fool.

Maybe it is not so bad to be absolutely fucking crazy.