Читать книгу Hacking Innovation - Josh Linkner - Страница 11

Kevin Bull was facing the challenge of his life. A successful stock trader and entrepreneur, Bull trained hard and finally made it as a walk-on to pursue his dream: to compete on national TV as an American Ninja Warrior. The other contestants were more athletic, more experienced, and better prepared. The odds were simply not in Bull’s favor.

Instead of brute strength, Bull leveraged the hacker mindset to do the unthinkable. Cannonball Alley, the 8^th obstacle in the 2014 Venice City Finals, was a formidable challenge, consisting of three dodgeball-sized balls, suspended by ropes over a large pool of water. Competitors had to cross over by grabbing one swinging cannonball and leaping to the next. The objective was to make it to the other side without falling in the water. Sixteen of the world’s best athletes attempted the challenge before Bull, and all sixteen of them failed.

The challenge required enormous upper body strength, after having already completed seven obstacles. Each contestant failed to make it through this incredibly demanding task, and Bull, who lacked the raw power of those who failed before him, knew he needed a different approach. He summoned his inner hacker.

Hackers are innately curious, refusing to accept conventional approaches as the only routes to success. They believe that any barrier or obstacle can be tackled with unorthodox, creative approaches that balk established practices. In Kevin’s case, he knew a completely different method would be his only chance of accomplishing this task that everyone had failed. Other competitors assumed the only way to conquer the dreaded Cannonball Alley was to increase upper body strength, but Kevin chose to do the complete opposite. After clearing the first two balls and moving to the third – the place where so many others had failed – Kevin stunned the crowd by flipping his body upside down and grabbing the last hanging cannonball with his legs. Just as his upper body strength had deteriorated under intense overuse, his fresh legs were able to grasp the target. Kevin locked his legs around the ball, used his upside-down body to swing in the direction of the finish line, and was able to leap in mid-air to land on his feet on the dry platform at which he aimed. Spectators leapt to their feet and screamed with both approval and astonishment, as this unlikely ninja became the first man to triumph over the course.

What mindset enabled Kevin Bull to both literally and figuratively flip traditional thinking upside down in order to win?

Understanding the mindset of hackers is the first step toward your own death-defying success. Kevin used a core hacking philosophy in order to win like cyberhackers used similar thinking to breach the “secure” systems of the FBI in 2015. Whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to be the next Zuckerberg or you’re working to end famine in Syrian refugee camps, a hacking mindset will enable you to view your biggest challenges in an entirely new light.