Q: In your own life, what ways have you been a disruptive innovator?

At what times was it better to

conform? What lessons can you draw from your own experience which may apply to businesses in
your country?

There are several ways and opportunities in which I could serve as disruptive innovator. Some of the
examples of this include times when I introduced a friend of mine in university to a series of virtual
libraries on the internet. She thought at the time that the only way to get access information of the
academic nature was to physically go to the library neglecting to remember that even the books in said
library were uploaded and regularly updated into the universities own virtual library. Another time is
when I had a chance to introduce a family member to a websites in which he could bid and win
contracts on freelancing internet based jobs. In his case the fact the we were able to disrupt the
common belief held as sacrosanct in my country that goes like this: opportunity for work and
sustainable living can only be found by going physically to a job. That freelancing on the internet is not
sustainable.

I noticed that it’s better to conform when the product or technology in question is either Unrefined or
is facing early performance. I noticed that introducing anyone to an unrefined product or a technology
facing early performance would actually deter and put off that person from the product or technology
for the long term. Another situation it’s better to conform is when potential applications of the
product or technology are at first unproven and users may doubt whether they can use the product to
replace its predecessors. I noticed that in the situations mentioned above its better to conform to
existing solutions until the product or technology is refined; the early performance issues are
hammered out and its applications proven.

The lesson I learned from my own experience is that before any type of disruptive technology is
introduced to the general populace it has to be tested and tweaked in a lot of different aspects before
it makes life convenient for a lot of people and becomes a game changer