This is a summary of the book titled “Pattern Breakers: why some start-ups change the future” written by Peter Ziebelman and Mike Maples Jr. and published by Public Affairs in 2024. When people hesitated to open their vehicle or homes to strangers, companies like Uber, Lyft and AirBnb upended these assumptions. The authors advocate to have a vision that agrees with the future even if it does not fall within the current pattern. They say best practices do not help start-ups create pattern-breaking ideas. Identify the inflections that are worthy of your attention today. Non-consensus insights help you outcompete the status quo. Achieve insights by living the future and finding what’s missing. Test your insights with early adopters to gauge interest. Gather stakeholders from team members, customers and investors. Build your movement by telling a provocative hero story. Embracing pattern-breaking ideas is not just for startups.

The book highlights the importance of living in the future to discover what is missing. By immersing themselves in cutting-edge technologies and trends, founders can gain valuable insights. These insights should be tested with early adopters to gauge interest and refine the concept. The authors stress the need for start-ups to gather stakeholders, including team members, customers, and investors, who believe in the vision and can help build a movement.

Corporations, too, can innovate by understanding inflections and leveraging their existing strengths. The book provides examples such as Lockheed Martin's development of a groundbreaking fighter jet during World War II and Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, which grew exponentially with the help of Facebook's global reach. The authors argue that large corporations often become too reliant on their past successes, leading to biases that favor established patterns and resistance to breakthrough ideas .

Disagreeableness is presented as an asset for founders, enabling them to say "no" to decisions that dilute their groundbreaking ideas. The right amount of disagreeableness helps founders develop resilience in the face of rejection and avoid the conformity trap. The book advises founders to work with executive coaches to find their most functional level of disagreeableness and reorient themselves toward their central mission.

The authors also emphasize the importance of storytelling in building a movement. Founders should create a hero's journey with co-conspirators as the heroes, the start-up founder as the mentor, and the status quo as the enemy. A powerful story centered on a higher purpose can inspire radical change and unite people in a shared belief in a better future. The book cites Tesla's mission to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy" as an example of a compelling story that attacks the status quo.

To enlist early believers, start-ups should focus on those who align with their vision and can help overcome resistance to new ideas. The book advises founders to seek feedback from those who share their core vision and to uncover surprises that can refine their concept. Positive surprises indicate a genuine craving for the product, while negative surprises suggest issues with implementation, audience, or insight.

The authors conclude that the true artistry of breakthrough founders lies in discovering compelling insights that leverage inflections to create new games with new rules. By embracing inflection theory and focusing on non-consensus insights, start-ups can develop pattern-breaking ideas that change the world .

#codingexercise: https://1drv.ms/w/c/d609fb70e39b65c8/EVSR0785qI5JpCaOv-gObmsBWKWvJQQUwZFwVgR8w2kwOw?e=7bx7PD