Next Maverick?
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Marc Winn
Marc Winn
Former Lone Nut Dandelion Project
“Crazy is living someone else’s life.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who assumingly breaks all the rules but still achieves positive outcomes.”
MARC’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The-Dandelion-Project-logo.png)
Marc Winn is Husband. Father. Owned by Dog. Mischief Maker. Lover of Changing the World. These days he is a full time social revolutionary spending much of my time focused on making the world a better place. He would struggle to look his son in the eye if he didn’t at least have a go. Marc is Former Lone Nut of The Dandelion Project a community project aimed to inspire Guernsey to become the best place to live on earth by 2020. Marc helps entrepreneurs to build sustainable life-enhancing businesses that matter. He is Ambassador for The World Fix, an organisation designed to articulate, celebrate and facilitate greater institutional experimentation* on a global scale, in order to accelerate systemic change. Co Founder of Born Limitless, his bold passion project that wants to transform the peak of what education so far achieves for children and Curator of TEDx St Peter Port.
WHY MARC WAS INTERVIEWED
Maverick Darren Robson recommended Marc Winn to me. Darren having been interviewed understood the project and who I was striving to include. Marc is alternate, random, quirky and funny weird. We are very supportive of each other’s efforts and regularly converse and share our ideas of changing the world.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Vulnerability is kind of the birthplace of creativity. If you’re choosing you’re own way, you’re choosing to be vulnerable and go away from the crowd and that is the birth place of doing anything new and anything different; so those two things are inherently linked. Innovation is about something new, something different, coming up with different stuff. I suppose you could transpose the words innovator for maverick.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Be yourself.”
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Tim Wilson
Tim Wilson
“Crazy is packing as much fun and joy into everything you do every day!”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who is an inspiring person, who has great ideas but thinks in a very original way, but also is taking people with them on that journey. So someone who is inclusive, not exclusive as well. Someone who is able to motivate and inspire others with his ideas too.”
TIM’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Tim-Wilson-logo.jpg)
Tim Wilson is a Creative Action Man. Amongst his roles he works as a regional coordinator for Code Club, a network of coding clubs for kids aged 9-11.
He is passionate about working on things that stimulate creativity and help folks of all ages to unleash their superpowers on the universe. Tim is a musician with a passion for drumming, singing and composing with bands Under A Banner and Progoctopus. Tim wants to pack in as much joy into life as possible and to drink lots of fantastic coffee. Forget work/life balance! How about fun/fun and for working for the things that you truly believe in.
WHY TIM WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Tim at the business events held at Cass Business School London and as I got to know him realized he thinks differently. I invited him to be a speaker at the Innovation, Creativity and Leadership talks I hosted and when the Business Mavericks project commenced knew he would be someone to include. Tim is accommodating, creative and a bit of a comic.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so this question was not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Rickie Josen the writer [who is also his girlfriend].”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Always find time to take stock and reflect so you can bring together the thing you need to become an even better maverick.”
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Meik Wiking
MEIK WIKING
CEO The Happiness Research Institute
“Crazy is not trying. There are people who imagine things and work to make them real – often surrounded by people who say it can´t be done.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Somebody who believes in his cause or her cause and pursues that idea and don’t, or at least to a very small extent care about what other people think of that.”
MEIK’S BIO
Meik Wiking is CEO of The Happiness Research Institute an independent think tank focusing on life satisfaction, happiness and quality of life. Their mission is to inform decision-makers of the causes and effects of human happiness, make subjective well-being part of the public policy debate, and improve the quality of life for citizens across the world by exploring why some countries, cities, organizations, and people are happier than others. It’s all about evaluating and measuring progress in society in a completely different way. Previously Meik was Project Director at Monday Morning Scandinavia’s leading independent think tank and worked at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark and The Danish Red Cross Youth. Meik has recently published his book Happiness Under The Microscope and The Little Book of Hygge.
WHY MEIK WAS INTERVIEWED
I came across Meik and his work as he was presenting The Happy City – A Danish Case Study at the Change Makers Symposium – From Evidence to Action: Inspiring Ideas for Happier Communities. As soon as I read in his profile how he is measuring progress in society in a completely different way, approached him as a potential maverick. He loved the project and was interested in being part of it. Meik is funny, happy, brave, driven and is totally supportive of Maverick Wisdom.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY & INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“They have a lot to do with each other as a lot of mavericks get their energy from being apart from the crowd; doing something differently, doing something new. And of course, innovation and creativity is the foundation of that.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“The economist John Halliwell who specializes in well-being, especially in its social context, and Jan Gehl the Danish architect who specializes in improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Ask yourself the question, what’s the worst thing that can happen?”
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Hermione Way
Hermione Way
Co Founder Vibease & CEO/Founder Way Media
“Crazy is being a free thinker and acting on it.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who thinks differently.You’re a maverick in your own way because you are a niche and you do things in a way that hasn’t been done before. So it’s somebody that thinks outside the box, thinks in a different way and has the balls to actually go out and do it. Because a lot of people talk and a lot of people don’t actually get anything done. You’ve got to be able to talk and get shit done.”
HERMIONE’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Hermione-Way.png)
Hermione was previously CMO & Co-Founder Vibease the world’s first smart vibrator bringing fantasies to life with an immersive pleasure experience, CEO & Founder of Way Media a media, marketing, and PR company that used her seven years experience crafting exciting stories for a social age for clients such as the BBC, Facebook, the UK Parliament. She hosts the world’s largest technology conference the Next Web in Amsterdam annually. Hermione is an unabashed and successful people hacker, established journalist, serial entrepreneur, tech startup celeb, and a personal friend of Richard Branson.
WHY HERMIONE WAS INTERVIEWED
Hermione was a girl from the tech industry and Co-Founder of Vibease when I interviewed her. From what I read it was apparent she was a maverick. As a mutual friend of Maverick Redg Snodgrass, CEO and Co-Founder of Wearable World. Hermione’s response on hearing about the Business Maverick project was ‘Sure, when shall we do it?’ Hermione is fun, spunky, down to earth, brave and who has evolved from a fun girl into an entrepreneurial business woman.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Hugely related. I mean that’s what being a maverick is, it’s being able to spot where innovation is needed, and to come up with a creative way of solving that problem.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Redg Snodgrass Chief Exec of ReadWrite and CEO and Co-Founder of Wearable World, and a number of other Silicon Valley tech people.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Just don’t be afraid.”
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Chad Wasilenkoff
Chad Wasilenkoff
Founder and CEO Fortress Paper
“Crazy is walking into a boardroom with a crazy idea knowing initially they will roll their eyes and silently wonder when they are going to replace this guy with someone ‘normal’. ”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone that’s willing to take some risks. Someone willing to take the road less travelled, areas that others may not tread. Generally, somebody who is willing to accept failure. Someone who is able to dust themselves off and get up and keep going. If you can’t accept failure or rejection you don’t want to be a maverick or be pushing the envelope because they don’t all work out.”
CHAD’S BIO
Chad Wasilenkoff is Founder and CEO of Fortress Paper a world-leading manufacturer of security and specialty pulp. He is a proven leader in several sectors including forestry, manufacturing, mining and gas, and other technology-based enterprises. Previously Chad was CEO and Director at Titanium Uranium Exploration Inc. In 2010 Ernst and Young honored Chad with Entrepreneur of the Year [Pacific region and Manufacturing division].
WHY CHAD WAS INTERVIEWED
Chad was interviewed as part of CKNW 980’s ‘The Chief Executives.’ By the end of his interview I knew he was a maverick and on explaining the Business Mavericks project Chad immediately said YES. Chad is direct, a deliverer and very comfortable with being different.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Rules slow down and stifle creativity, what I’m obviously referring to is business. I think the market will, just supply and demand and interest from customers, having all these rules and regulations er, unfortunately, yeah as I said, they stifle creativity for potential growth and I think the market should be able to decide.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Richard Branson the English businessman and investor, Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor and Donald Trump the business magnate. All of whom built very successful global brands and multiple different businesses.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“To be a maverick requires unwavering conviction and passion. To operate or make decisions that are not immediately obvious to the masses will always promote naysayers to disagree and challenge your ideas. Without this unwavering conviction these ideas can slowly get eroded down and brought back to mainstream thinking. Thus muting the chance of your ideas having a game-changing effect.”
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Vanessa Vallely
Vanessa Vallely
Managing Director We Are The City and Founder/CoChair The Network of Networks
“Crazy is thinking you will achieve things without an element of risk!”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
” A connector that enjoys connecting individuals together and gets pleasure out of that.”
VANESSA’S BIO
Vanessa Vallely is Managing Director at We Are The City which provides information to women who wish to progress in their careers via networking and events. Vanessa is a Public Speaker and Facilitator and has delivered numerous keynotes. She is Founder and Co-Chair of The Network of Networks [THON] a collaboration of corporate internal diversity network heads/committee members from 100 multinational firms across sectors in the UK. She is Board Member for Cancer Research UK and Tech UK representing the companies and technologies that are defining today the world we will live in tomorrow. She is Ambassador for Future First, engaging alumni to help current students, Girls out Loud a UK based social enterprise, and Inspiring the Future a free service where professionals go into state schools. Vanessa is the author of Heels of Steel which tracks the trials and tribulations of the most networked woman in the City.
WHY VANESSA WAS INTERVIEWED
I was introduced to Vanessa by Joella Bruckshaw a Performance Consultant and Executive Coach I had been Coaching/Consulting for. Joella had an understanding of the Mavericks project and knew Vanessa would be a solid fit. Vanessa was very happy to be interviewed once I had explained the project to her. Vanessa is down to earth, direct, a connector, passionate and honest.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“It’s ideas isn’t it. Generating ideas. It’s the ability to take those risks and innovation is just the freedom to think and the freedom to see how they could be potentially used and applied; unrestricted thinking.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Lara Morgen the entrepreneur, Founder and former CEO of Pacific Direct who is my business mentor, and my husband Stewart.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“To find other mavericks and to basically listen to them, seek their advice and see if those traits or characteristics are in line with your own thinking.”
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Jonathan Trimble
Jonathan Trimble
CEO/Co Founder 18 Feet and Rising
“Crazy is usually something fairly obvious and innate that for whatever reasons simply hasn’t been unearthed or made possible yet.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“It’s not a term you take on for self-image. The job of trying to do things differently is actually a difficult one that’s never-ending, and requires complete faith and commitment to it. And so that job of sort of standing against the wind of everything else is sort of tougher than any image that it might bring you of being the challenger if that makes sense. And I don’t even know at which point you realize you’ve made a difference. It’s sort of a duty you take on more than a characteristic of a person or an image of a person, and I think often the safest-seeming people can be actually the toughest at standing up for different ways of doing things. So I would describe a maverick as somebody with a clarity of purpose; an idea about how things should be different and probably above all a commitment to stick to those things to really see where it takes them, even if it takes them nowhere.”
JONATHAN’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Jonathan-Trimble.jpg)
Jonathan Trimble is CEO/Co-Founder of 18 Feet and Rising, the fastest growing creative independent in the UK. Jonathan was trained at DDB (Omnicom), where the awards he gleaned across his clients put him on the Board at 30. In 2014, Jonathan was named a Debretts 500 People of Today in the Sunday Times, marking him as one of the UK’s most influential people in advertising today.
WHY JONATHAN WAS INTERVIEWED
Jonathan was recommended to me by Maverick Stephen Greene of Rockcorps who I had interviewed. Jonathan is considered, direct and knowledgeable and he applies it.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“They are one and the same. I love the word creativity, and all it really means is being comfortable with things you don’t know about and comfortable with doing things that haven’t been done before, comfortable with things that aren’t fully defined, or comfortable with things that are not black and white. It’s all exactly the same, so in a way, if you’re comfortable with being a maverick that means kind of trying things different to everything else, so by definition that’s exactly being a creative person. Innovation as a word get’s attached to something being actually purposeful in the end in some way, shape or form. I think with creativity if you want to be purposeless that’s alright, and the same with being a maverick, you don’t know where you’re allowed to play in a space if it doesn’t yield anything don’t worry. I think that when the word innovation comes in I kind of tend to associate that with something that actually happens. That needs to have to effect something or do something or change something vs. hey we’re feeling this space out now and it’s kind of interesting. So in that respect applied maverickness is innovation.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Write down the highest possible version of what you think your purpose is. Think of the tiniest steps towards it and keep doing those tiny steps and don’t come off them. That would be the sort of practical thing because people can get a bit lost with where to start. It starts with a conversation with somebody about it and it doesn’t have to start with you’ve raised finance. So set the purpose out and then start with the tiniest actions and be practical, and then spiritually I would say just don’t be afraid, don’t be frightened to be yourself.”
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Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Director of New Products – Hootsuite
“Crazy is what they call it when your bold plan fails. Bold is what they call it when your crazy plan succeeds.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who has an original way of approaching a problem and thinking through what that solution might be. So instead of taking the conventional path they do something different.”
MICHEAL’S BIO
Michael is Director of New Products at Hootsuite [his role when interviewed]. A 2 time Emmy nominee who has founded and managed several early-stage tech companies in New York and Vancouver. He is Founder of Wantoo which uses mobile technology to predict what’s next. Micheal is Co-Founder of Startland helping Syrians get connected to the local startup scene by providing technical training, equipment, and access to startups. Founder of Tippett.org. He is Advisor at the School of Journalism [Digital Media] at the University of British Columbia and a Board Member of The Upside Foundation of Canada an exciting venture that lets Canadian startups give back to our society.
WHY MICHAEL WAS INTERVIEWED
Micheal was recommended to me by Mark Busse Co-Founder and Principal at Industrial Brand who I had already interviewed. Micheal is fun, genuine, honest, and brave.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“If you’re doing something that hasn’t been done before it requires that you kind of create it from nothing or your experience. Maverick and innovation is almost the same thing; it’s about novelty and creating something innovative, new and untested.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“George Simpson Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the period of its greatest power.”
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Paul Tinari
Paul Tinari
Chief Technology Officer Joom3D
“Crazy is maxing out all of your credit cards and all your lines of credit and all your parents resources & the savings of your closest friends, all because you have a vision that no one else has about what is possible.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who refuses to follow the mainstream just because it’s the mainstream but sets out in their own direction when it suits them or it suits their long term goals.”
PAUL’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Paul-Tinari.jpg)
Paul Tinari is Chief Technology Officer of Joom3D which researches new concepts in 3D printing and supporting technologies. He is also Director at E-Frac Industrial Services Inc., an organization developing a revolutionary waste water treatment system for the fracking industry and system for economically generating clean, fresh drinking water from salt and brackish water sources and Director for the Pacific Insitute for Advanced Study. Paul is a professional creative thinker and problem solver who has worked for the private sector, NGOs and government clients around the globe. He has been called a visionary and “Renaissance Man” for the 21st century. When asked by a U.S. Senator what his research would do to enhance the national security of the nation, he replied: “Nothing, except to help make it worth defending.” For many years he taught creative thinking skills to executives from Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of several books including Boxing Outside the Think, JOOM Destiny, The Art & Science of Systems Thinking, and Relativity for Retards. As Dr. Future, he is host to the long-running show on CJSF Radio “Future Talk.“
WHY PAUL WAS INTERVIEWED
Paul presented at Creative Mornings and his presentation was enough to convince me that he was a maverick. Paul is direct, funny, knowledgeable and interesting.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“There is a vital connect between creativity, innovation and mavericks. Take a maverick like Ricardo Semlar he questioned everything about what had been done in the business before. There’s a story about a prisoner in Auschwich who’s thirsty and licks an icicle and the guard says “No”, when the prisoner ask “Why?” the guard responds, “there is no why here.” So the inability to ask why is the concentration camp of your mind.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Bill Gates Philanthropist, investor, computer programmer. Steve Jobs information technology entrepreneur and inventor. Warren Buffet investor philanthropist. Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the USA.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“First of all know yourself, so you know what you love to do, and then start doing it. If you don’t know what you love to do then it’s hopeless. So choose what you love to do and then become the best you possibly can at it by learning all you can about it. Then cultivate a vision about where that field is going and aim to be the contributor that brings that field to the next stage.”
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Jane Tewson
Jane Tewson
Founder Igniting Change & the Co Founder of Comic Relief.
“Crazy is thinking you know all the answers. The more I listen, the more I understand that we need to be guided to solutions by the people experiencing the problem we’re trying to solve.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A maverick is somebody who breaks the rules and is untraditional.”
JANE’S BIO
Jane is an innovator with a global reputation for inspiring individuals and organizations to work together for positive social change. She is ever-curious and drawn to the humanity and courage of people doing it tough. To date, Jane has founded five charities, all of which are flourishing today, the most recent being Igniting Change, a purposely tiny organisation based in Australia. She is known for lateral thinking and creative initiatives including Comic Relief (Red Nose Day) in the UK, which has raised over a billion pounds and best-selling books including Dying to Know – bringing death to life.
Jane has sat on a number of not-for-profit boards including Oxfam UK, The St James Ethics Centre, The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Committee and is currently a Director of Virgin Unite, which unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world and The Reichstein Foundation, which works for social justice and environmental sustainability by investing strategically in inspirational people, projects and organisations. It is a catalyst for more effective philanthropy in Australia.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
The mavericks Jane knows tend to be very innovative.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“The humanity & courage of the people I am privileged to work with, like the young girl I met a couple of years ago who was an addict and homeless, but really wanting to get herself back together. A few weeks ago this beautiful young woman strode into her office – it was the same girl. She had done it, she was clean and is going to go a long way.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“To follow their gut. To follow their intuition. To follow what their inner self is telling them and just go for it.”
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Natalia Talkowska
Natalia Talkowska
Founder, Director and Chief Visual Storyteller Natalka Design
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who does things differently than others. Someone who excites people and someone who surprises everyone around with their ideas that are out outside the box, or as I like to call it, outside the bubble.”
NATALIA’S BIO
Natalia Talkowska is Founder, Director and Chief Visual Storyteller at Natalka Design Ltd, a creative production house where they draw your ideas and bring projects and events to life. Part of which is Doodledo, a movement to inspire everyone to draw.
WHY NATALIA WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Nat when we both did the MOE Foundation Executive Coaching training and remained friends. The fact that she draws meetings instead of taking minutes is why she thinks differently. Nat is brave, determined, funny and quirky.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Yes, you need to have a head full of ideas and it helps you to be creative to b a maverick because sometimes it feels like let’s say even if I put to the wall and I need to respond immediately to something, being creative really helps. I can come up with A, B, C, D and make stuff happen, so that helps. Mavericks are connected with innovation in my head, because it’s making things new and basically things that haven’t been there before.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. Richard Branson the English businessman and investor. Darren Robson leadership coach and my mum.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Don’t over think it. Just do it!”
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Pocket Sun
Pocket Sun
Founding Partner SoGal Ventures
“Crazy is the courage and ability to redefine yourself and challenge the status quo.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who sees the world in a different way and who is not afraid to pursue that vision that he or she sees.”
POCKET’S BIO
Pocket is the Founding Partner of SoGal Ventures. Her mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship within our generation. With that in mind, she founded SoGal, a global community influencing 50,000 diverse entrepreneurs and investors in 20+ countries to empower, inspire and connect entrepreneurial minds with high-impact communities, digital media, funding resources, networking, and startup advisory.
Pocket was Forbes 2016 30 Under 30 Asia in Venture Capital & Finance and LinkedIn 2015 Top Voices in VC & Entrepreneurship. She has been featured in Forbes, Harper’s BAZAAR, BBC World News, The Huffington Post, Inc., The Straits Times, Channel News Asia, The Business Times, Next Shark, e27, DBS Treasures campaign, East West Bank, CLEO Magazine etc and is a Tedx and keynote speaker.
WHY POCKET WAS INTERVIEWED
I came across Pocket and her work with SoGal Ventures via her being voted as LinkedIn’s 2015 influencers for Venture Capitalism and Entrepreneurship. Pocket had interviewed VC’s and shared the lessons from her interviews just as I was doing with the Business Mavericks. I told her about the interviews and how Maverick Wisdom had evolved, which she thought was cool and asked how she could help. Pocket is passionate, driven, has a very knowledgeable head on her young shoulders and is brave enough to take ‘massive actions.’
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I have been playing the piano for many years. What I’ve learned from music is that playing the piano is something that when you’ve put in a lot of work it shows. So if you spend hours and hours in a practice room working on a piece, you’re definitely going to improve. It’s the same principle of taking massive actions to get where you want to be. In that sense, I think the creative part of me was sparkled by studying music and the piano. Creativity is very important; right now design is what we believe is the future. We believe things have to look elegant, and pleasant to be a winner in the market. So if you are an engineer and you don’t have that creativity and aesthetics in you, you need to find someone to help you do the design part. If you’re crazy, you’ve got to be creative and unexpected.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Xiushun Sun [her uncle] who is a very visionary and innovative person who achieves whatever he sets his mind to do.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Being a maverick is a gift. It helps you navigate through your life and knowing that you’re a maverick gives you confidence because when you realise, hey I was born this way you’ve gotta be OK with that and use that as a good force to tackle whatever problems you want to solve for the world or for yourself. So the knowing yourself part is very critical.”
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Robbie Stokes Jr
Robbie Stokes Jr
Founder/Board Chair I Talk To Strangers Foundation
“Crazy is the beginning of greatness, before others call it greatness.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who is crazy yet purposeful. It’s the skill, bold, let’s do something new but this is somebody that you trust. This is somebody who’s brave enough to go against the grain and maybe do what other people were thinking, but to do it in such a way that people will have faith in whatever the outcome will be.”
ROBBIE’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Robbie-Stokes.jpg)
Robbie Stokes Jnr is Founder/Board Chair – I TALK TO STRANGERS Foundation, whose philosophy encourages and challenges individuals to create genuine relationships through meeting new people. The motive is to push a new idea, that meeting new people increases personal and professional opportunities, experiences, and lessons learned. ITTS has created international and multi-cultural imprints with over 5,000 global volunteers and over 20,000 hours of community service worldwide. Growing a larger community of social organizations will increase the volunteer: community hour ratio towards social peace, environmental protection, cultural preservation, and technological advancements starting in your home community!
Robbie has traveled meeting over 3% of the global population while documenting his journey through a soon-to-be-released documentary and book, along with participating as a speaker in numerous engagements around the world. Robbie is also the Global Volunteer Coordinator Plenumigo a multinational organization that provides individuals with opportunities to fulfill their potential and life purpose by following their passion. Previously Robbie was Congressional Events Co-ordinator U.S. House of Representatives http://www.house.gov.
WHY ROBBIE WAS INTERVIEWED
Robbie was recommended by Maverick Daniel de Gruijter of Incitement who had been interviewed. Robbie is funny and down to earth.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity is how the maverick stays the maverick. Innovation is evolution. You have to find new processes, new techniques or new ideas to move it forward.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Martin Luther King the civil rights activist and minister.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Find your weaknesses.”
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Hugo Spowers
Hugo Spowers
Chief Architect Riversimple Engineering
“Crazy is being stubborn enough to ignore advice – but smart enough to know when to listen.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“I suppose the principle thing is not accepting the received wisdom. Asking a question about anything and everything. And that doesn’t mean you have to do things differently for the sake of it, you have to do things differently for a reason.”
HUGO’S BIO
Hugo Spowers is Company Architect as Riversimple Engineering whose purpose is to pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport. Previously Hugo was owner of OsCar Automotive Ltd which developed a business strategy to bring hydrogen fuel cell cars to market, and Prowess Racing Ltd which designed and manufactured single seat racing cars, restored historic racing cars and fielded racing teams.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“If you are creative and doing something about it you’re saddled with being a maverick aren’t you? Innovation is all to do with the self-belief or confidence or the courage to just be different. And innovation is that, creativity is that. You can’t do it if you’re constrained by convention.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Amherst Villiers the automotive, aeronautical and astronautics engineer and portrait painter, who designed a land speed record-breaking car for Malcolm Campbell and developed the supercharged “Blower Bentley”, driven by Henry Birken and (in fiction) by James Bond. [Q from James Bond was based on Amherst].”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Take people with you. It’s learning to listen as well as being stubborn. Accepting other people’s talents. Those are the sorts of things that I suspect don’t come naturally to mavericks.”
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Heather Sparks
Heather Sparks
Immersive Installation Artist, Sculptor and Set Designer
“Crazy is a vivacious, vital willingness to travel the edges between what is known and unknown.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Mavericks are people that take sort of regular habits, or ways of interacting, ways of wearing clothes, ways of making art, whatever it is, and flip it upside down. So it can be as simple as taking a jacket and putting it upside down and putting it backwards and then creating a new fashion, so it’s very simple, or a stretch out of something, like a normal interaction and actually elongating it and making it bigger or just a little bit off to the side.”
HEATHER’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Heather-Spark.png)
Heather Spark is an Immersive Installation Artist, Sculptor and Set Designer, and Founder of Sparks Designs. Her art emphasizes the transformation of ordinary and discarded objects into immersive works of art. She began to develop her unique style in her final year of the B.F.A. program at Emily Carr University, working with ephemera and salvaged wood to build architectural cabinets. From these small beginnings, she quickly began to work big, building large-scale architectural sets for The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret including The Village Project—a village built from pallets and inhabited by artists—the immersive 1930s-esque set for Hard Times Hit Parade. As of late, Heather has been dedicating her time to the development of a 50-acre international artist residency and performing arts center, The Lookout Arts Quarry located in Bellingham, WA. She lives in a hand-built patchwork house on wheels, drives backhoes, builds large-scale engineered artist facilities, builds wooden art installations including her favorite little lean-to church atop the hill, creates graphic design promotions, produces festivals, and organizes artist residencies. She spends her free time expanding her skills as an artist into the realm of performance, shadow puppetry, dance, and experimental sound.
WHY HEATHER WAS INTERVIEWED
Heather presented at Creative Mornings and it was apparent she was a maverick. Heather was creative, wacky and fun. She is the only maverick to jump off my sofa, crawl around on the floor and offer to show me her underwear.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity and mavericks is one and the same; think differently right, just creative thinking. Innovation is allowing yourself to have an open mind and think about things differently, so not following the formula but actually thinking do I like the formula? What do I think about it? What are some of the other ways? What are the other possibilities? That can be applied to anything whether it’s building a structure and engineering a design or whether it’s creating leadership, whether it’s creating an art project. So innovation, wouldn’t it be the same word really as maverick and creativity?”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Islando [my sweetie] he’s one of my biggest mentors and has really really supported my maverick nature.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Find others, find others that are on the journey and share.”
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Victoria Sopik
Victoria Sopik
CEO and Co-founder Kids & Company
“Crazy is being the co-founder of a fast growing international business and the mother of 8 children – always juggling.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone that is very innovative and different than standard.”
VICTORIA’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Victoria-Sopik.gif)
Victoria Sopik, CEO and Co-founder of Kids & Company, (and mother of 8), understands this delicate balancing act. Victoria’s experiences as a working mother and devoted parent have had a profound impact on her, and they have made her determined to make a difference by helping working parents and concerned employers with work-life challenges.
Victoria lends her time; skill and leadership to benefit the child care industry and community by presenting at a variety of events, workshops and conferences across Canada. Her professional accomplishments have been recognized with several honors and rewards, such as 2013/14 Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies by Deloitte, 2013 RBC Women Entrepreneur Of The Year Award – Momentum Category, 2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year in the Business-to-Business Category, WXN Top100 Most Powerful Women, Passion Capitalist Award for Work Culture and Philosophy – 2012, 2008-2014 Profit Magazine’s – One of Canada’s fastest growing companies, Canadian Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs for the past 7 years, Member of the Young Presidents Organization, and the International Women’s Forum.
WHY VICTORIA WAS INTERVIEWED
I was introduced to Victoria by Denise Kelly who at the time was part of the Kids and Company team. Victoria is determined, purpose drive, concise and knows herself.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so this question was not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and intervention.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Keep going, don’t look back. Don’t question your instincts, or let anyone else.”
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Ian Solomon Kawall
Ian Solomon-Kawall
Founder May Project Gardens and KMT
“Crazy is what success looks like in the future.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who usurps something that is kind of standardized, or something that’s quite the same or kind of diverts it. A maverick is someone that’s not considered to be relatively mainstream. Someone that’s innovative. Someone that’s pioneering.”
IAN’S BIO
Ian Soloman-Kawall aka KMT is a Freedom Teacher Guide who uses art [hip-hop] for social awareness and social cohesion. He is Co-Founder of the May Project Gardens which brings communities together to act collectively. Previously he was Project Manager for Pan Intercultural Arts a company using intercultural performance work to help facilitate self-expression and promote a deeper understanding of our changing cultural identities. They work with a diverse range of communities across London and internationally, empowering people to use the arts as a tool for change in their lives.
WHY IAN WAS INTERVIEWED
Ian was recommended to me by Maverick Luke Hemment who felt Ian would be a good fit for this project. I researched Ian and learnt more about how he uses art to help people change their lives. Ian is alternative, legacy-driven, humorous, multi-talented and open.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Being creative you have to find a way that works for you. When I get stressed I walk round in the garden. I’m surrounded by nature and that just makes you just look and see the whole world differently.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“So many people I wouldn’t be able to put it down to one individual. I think nature is probably my favorite maverick, when you think you understand it, it does something even more amazing and wonderful.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Try, try, try. Do, do, do.”
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Redg Snodgrass
Redg Snodgrass
CEO Wearable World and ReadWrite
“Crazy is as crazy does.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A force of nature, just like the Titan of Mavericks, the most coveted event in big wave surfing. Mavericks bucks trends and see things others don’t see.”
REDG’S BIO
Redg Snodgrass is CEO of Wearable World a media accelerator and events company which is home for the people, ideas, and things that change the world He is also CEO of ReadWrite one of the most widely read tech news sites in the world. He is a Consultant at GWGSD Consulting and Advisor for Skout, the world’s largest app for meeting new people. With millions of users all over the world, Skout gives you the ability to connect with people no matter where you are. Previously Redg was CEO/Co Founder of The Taploid, the Facebook app and VP of Open Innovation at Alcatel-Lucent which provides products and innovations in IP and cloud networking, as well as ultra-broadband fixed and wireless access.
WHY REDG WAS INTERVIEWED
Redg was he was Co Producing Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together start ups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship, curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. Listening and learning from Redg I realised he was a maverick. He is humane, quirky, self aware, determined, driven to do good and true to himself.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“In our very essence we come up with things that are different, that are outside the realm of normal circumstance and we really just try to push the limits of the normal concepts and designs. And in a way we feel like the world should be that way, we’re going to push it to be that way, in order to come up with a different framework of what that world is… mavericks have to have a risk tolerance, that’s very high to innovate; to move pass the status quo, and to do things that are different.”
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Robin Smith
Robin Smith
Founder Host Universal, Sohost and Soho Dairy
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who doesn’t give a fuck about the way things are done and would be more focused on following a course that is likely to bring about some kind of change, whether that be conventional change, business change, or other change, social change, that they deem to be important.”
ROBIN’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Robin-Smith.jpg)
Robin is a practitioner of change and transformation who has been doing it, across Free Range, Fair Trade, Renewable Energy, Rainforest protection, poverty eradication and climate change, since 1991. He created the virtual agency Host Universal in 1997, Sohost in 2013 and Soho Dairy in 2015. He continues to work with inspirational ideas and people to tackle serious challenges head on, believing that there is no issue that cannot be flipped to a positive outcome and that we do not have to screw the planet or its inhabitants to earn reward.
WHY ROBIN WAS INTERVIEWED
Robin was recommended to me by Louis Barnett whom I had interviewed and hence knew the project. Robin is laid back, interesting and doing it.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Totally. Is Richard Branson a maverick? I guess he’s the Arch-Maverick in some people’s book but he doesn’t do anything unusual. He’s got an airline, he put up again another airline, he’s got a music business, he puts up against another music business. So it’s not you know what he’s doing is something different within the context of business as usual. So I couldn’t ever say he’s not a maverick. It’s all about ideas. It’s pure creativity. You look at something and you think, it doesn’t have to be this way. I’m gonna do something different and if everybody tells you you can’t do it, you’re still gonna do it, because you can smell it and it can be disruptive and all of those things but actually the proof of the pudding should be in the pudding so if you crack it and it turns in to something beautiful then everyone wants to get you remembered and they think you’ve created something lovely. Innovation is creativity cooking. It’s a very similar thing.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Dee Hock pioneer of electronic bank transfers [visa].”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Listen to what’s said, but do what you believe.”
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Jason Smith
Jason Smith
“Crazy is launching off a cliff in a prototype wingsuit.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who defies normalcy. Somebody that actually says I want to try something different and maybe even, if I pull an example of yourself, where you’re comfortable, you’re doing something that’s normal and you decide to do something out of normal, something new, something challenging. I think that’s like maverick thinking and people in my opinion are either born that way and constantly doing it, so they never stick to the normal path. Or there’s kind of discovered mavericks, where they actually learn that that’s not the path for them and they just decide to embrace something new and challenging which I would call a maverick.”
JASON’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Jason-Smith-logo.jpg)
Jason Smith is CEO and Co Founder of Klue a curated intelligence platform providing companies with a lens into their competitors world. He is a 20-year Internet entrepreneur with experience building enterprise focused technology companies.
Previously, Jason served as President of Vision Critical, helping grow the customer intelligence SaaS company from start-up to 500+ person market leader with 600+ enterprise clients including Staples, HP, BBC, Nestle and Conde Nast. Prior to Vision Critical, Jason was an active investor in ecommerce custom apparel company GAIA Ultimate, served as Vice President at Electronic Arts, and co-founded Columbus Group, a 100-person digital agency pioneer acquired by TELUS (NYSE: TU). Jason graduated with Honours in Marketing from UBC’s Sauder School of Business, is the recipient of Ernst and Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, BDC’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 under 40, is a founding board member of NewMedia BC, a past board member of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and served as an advisor to Mobify (mobile retail commerce), ContentDJ (content marketing & curation), CrowdEmotion (visual market research), Strutta (social engagement platform acquired by LX Ventures), and Garabaldi Capital (growth equity advisors). In 2012, Jason bought four around-the-world plane tickets and travelled through 13 countries with his wife and two daughters.
WHY JASON WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Jason at Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together startups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth, and entrepreneurship, curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. And asked him if I could interview him for the Business Mavericks Project. Jason is fun, intriguing, in tune with himself, and from the heart.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“It’s one of the greatest forms of creativity, because you remove the boundaries and you just say I’m just going to explore. Creativity is exploration. Once you removed boundaries and limitation to explore, once you’re free to explore your mind is open to new discovery and new discovery is innovation.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Elon Musk engineer, inventor, explorer. Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. Bill Gates business leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist. Don Mattrick video game designer, Former CEO of Zynga.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“At your core if you know you’re a maverick and you know you’re a bit wild and you’re willing to take risks I think what you need to do is learn how to mitigate those risks. You learn to understand what are all the factors that you can increase your chances of success. You got the guts to jump into anything, now you have to see if you can just read that water and know how shallow it is.”
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Shed Simove
Shed Simove
Performer, Author, Entrepreneur and Motivational Speaker
“Crazy is way more fun than being sane.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“It’s not for me to define it, it’s for society to define it. The important question is should we be encouraging maverick behavior? And of course, my answer is yes. And I define maverick behavior as always looking at what the status quo is and improving upon it. So a maverick is somebody that is a contrarian, who questions things, who isn’t satisfied with the way things are and if we are to survive as a human race we have to think maverick, we have to constantly improve because otherwise we’re gonna destroy our planet and we’re gonna destroy ourselves in the process. The only thing that can save us is our brilliant brain and our latent ability to solve problems which is creativity. So we have to keep improving and looking for solutions otherwise we’re gonna blow ourselves up with nuclear bombs or ruin the rain forest.”
SHED’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Shed-simove-logo.jpg)
Shed Simove is a performer, author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker on creativity and innovation. Harnessing a constant stream of ideas from his astonishingly active mind, Shed has learned to transform his unconventional concepts into lucrative new business ventures which form the basis of his completely unique stand-up routines, books, and inspirational speeches. Following a degree in Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and two years working in DisneyWorld, Florida (as a Sixteenth Century Gentleman), Shed worked in TV Production, heading up programmes including ‘The Big Breakfast’, ‘Space Cadets’, and ‘Big Brother’. Shed soon became known industry-wide for making innovative, ground-breaking television shows. In 2003, Shed was appointed Commissioning Editor of Channel 4’s ‘Big Brother’ and throughout his TV career was also involved in discovering and launching many stars including Kelly Brook, Tess Daly, and Russell Brand. As well as a successful career in television production, Shed has forged a highly innovative merchandising empire – selling one million novelty gifts, executive toys, best-selling adult sweets, books and greeting cards worldwide. He’s even launched his own currency! Shed has won ‘Gift Of The Year’ twice for two of his creations – a range of birthday candles that spelt “You’re Old” and the hugely popular ‘Sound Machine‘. He also gained worldwide fame as the bestselling author of ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex‘, a 200-page book that is completely blank inside. This title reached the top fifty of the Amazon chart and was featured in the Guinness Book Of Records for ‘Most Blank Pages In A Published Book’ Shed is author of Ideas Man, Success or your money back and Presents Money Can’t Buy.
WHY SHED WAS INTERVIEWED
Shed was recommended and introduced to me by Maverick Marc Winn. Shed is fun, genuine, alternative yet honest, quirky and completely nuts.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity and innovation are pivotal to being a maverick. It’s everything. You can’t be a true maverick unless you embrace and nurture creativity and innovation. So that’s the essence of a maverick. A true maverick is doing things that haven’t been done before, looking for new solutions, creating items and services that haven’t been existing in the world before.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“James Dyson Inventor & Industrial Designer. Elon Musk Engineer, Inventor, Explorer. Hugh Heffner Editor, Journalist, Illustrator, Producer, Entrepreneur. Richard Dawkins Biologist and Writer.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Look deep into your heart and see what excites you and turns you on. We should teach kids this. You have to constantly monitor your thoughts and be mindful of what you think is wonderful and what excites you. And times in your life when you’ve felt alive, so that might be a sporting event that you’ve succeeded in or it might be a creative event that you’ve loved, or it might be that you’ve gone to see a movie or you’ve been to an antique shop and something’s moved you. You have to monitor when you get excited, and then you should try to gravitate towards the thing that made you excited and try and make that your job, try and make that your career.”
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Yanik Silver
Yanik Silver
Founder and CEO Maverick1000
“Crazy is ignoring the small little voice that reminds you there’s something more and something bigger you are destined to do.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who definitely sets their own rules, who really just creates essentially their own reality of what they want and who kind of redefines business as usual. We’ve always talked of the maverick philosophy of not only increasing your business revenue but taking your life to the next level and taking your impact and contribution to the next level.”
YANIK’S BIO
Yanik Silver is Founder and CEO Maverick1000 an invitation-only, global network of industry transforming entrepreneurs connecting in bold new ways to challenge and collectively support each other’s biggest business goals, engage in reinvigorating experiences and co-create a worldwide multiplier impact. He is the author of Evolved Enterprise which helps align the true soul of your business with more impact, meaning and happiness – that surprisingly delivers even greater profits.
WHY YANIK WAS INTERVIEWED
I wanted to interview Yanik as soon as I commenced the project Business Mavericks. Darren Robson whom I had interviewed and knew the project made the introduction. Yanik is focused, determined and most definitely a maverick and doodler.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Being a maverick is definitely related to creativity, it’s something that I think everyone can tap into. It takes a maverick to really look, at what at the surface looks the exact same to everyone else, but someone can see different pieces that can be added to it or taken away or enlarged or made smaller or moved into a new industry and marketplace and see where those connections would work. Innovation drives your marketing and it drives your business models, so right now I’m looking at, how does having an impact really truly add in an authentic genuine business way to your model. How does that drive your business, and so that to me is innovation and looking at business models that already work and not adding unless they truly are self-sustaining and have cause elements to them that are really exciting and just kind of like this virtuous spiral that keeps getting better and better.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Mavericks need to look at why they’re doing it. What’s their motivation behind it and tap into that big reason. The why of whatever they’re doing and anything that they’re doing that’s worthwhile is gonna require some sort of different thinking or different take on things. But not to get so wrapped up in just being different for the sake of being different.”
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Raj Singh
Raj Singh
“Crazy is having a kid while CEOing a start up.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Mavericks tend to be fearless, challenged and often don’t follow social norms but in entrepreneurship I think it’s more psychology than anything else.”
RAJ’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Raj-Singh.png)
Raj Singh has been involved in a variety of mobile products over the past 15 years beginning with WAP games in 1999! He is presently incubating his next venture. Previously he was at Salesforce via acquisition of his company Tempo AI which focused on mobile productivity. Raj has worked on a number of apps that have retained top 100 in their respective App Stores across a range of categories (Utilities, Lifestyle, Photos, Productivity, Video etc). Raj has angel-invested in mobile, currently he is an investor in a mobile Seed fund called ENIAC Ventures tracking mobile ad tech and social graphs. Raj spends his free time getting better at riding his motorcycle and making time to hit the MMA gym!
WHY RAJ WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Raj at Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together startups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth, and entrepreneurship, curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. Raj was included as I heard him speak and realized he was a potential maverick to include. Raj is a risk taker, connector, someone who trusts himself and a friend.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so this question not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“The war stories of other CEO’s as each of them helps shapes how I think about things.”
ADVICE TO OTHER MAVERICKS
“Just go for it. Too many folks are tentative in making the leap and/or not ready to jump into the pit, but the reality is once you start doing you will hustle and learn fast and the pieces will staff to fall into place.”
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Shubendu Sharma
Shubendu Sharma
Founder and Director Afforestt
“Crazy is just a dreamer.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A maverick has to be really very courageous. Doesn’t matter what happens, no matter if you like go 100% broke and no matter if nothing is moving and you just have to wait, wait and watch and that kind of courage. You have a stupid idea; stupid in the eyes of the whole world and probably even sounds stupid to you at sometimes. But you have to have the courage of living with it, you know of breathing it every day in and out. No. 1 is courage, No. 2 is talent. You just can’t be a stupid courageous person. You can’t be a courageous fool, you have to be smart at the same time and keep your sanity intact. All the aversions should not pull you away and you are a smart guy and there is another field where you can make your money so there is no need to suffer like this is one single field where you’re not making money. These are the things that will happen in the whole journey of your declaration to be part of that list that you are making. No.3 You have to be realistic, every maverick or anyone who has big plans has to be very very realistic. If I wouldn’t have been realistic I would have been an activist. An activist who just says use Miyawaki method to plant forests, you are doing it wrong, corporations, industrial agriculture. Everything going on in this world is wrong and only I am right but nobody listens to me. Don’t fall in that loop you know, be realistic. Because at some point of time I realized that businesses, business, in particular, is something which works in this world. You call it a capitalist or socialist world, human world or world of love, or world of money. But business is something that goes everywhere. And the show has been running probably since the time when human civilization would have even thought of expanding itself you know. The kings and rulers who were building these kingdoms but it was the businessmen that was the train that was moving things from one point to point B it was always about business. So even if doing something good or something social or something which may sound entirely corporate but it has to be done in a way which works. And I can see that Coca-Cola is being sold in 150 countries and in a period of 100 years there has been no philosophy which has grown so wild, there is no religion that has grown so wild. There is no other thing that has spread so wild so deep. You go to some forest in Amazonian and you can have a bottle of coke. That’s how businesses penetrate deep into the society, culture, geographies, irrespective of everything. You know if money is being made everyone in the whole circle joins the train. No 4 is empathy You just have to have to soothe everything with this added layer of empathy. As you said Richard Branson he will definitely come on the list. I can quite feel it why he would come on the list and when you would feel he would be part of the list, because of the whole glue of empathy.”
SHUBENDU’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Shubendra-Sharma.jpg)
Shubendu Sharma is Founder and Director of Afforestt a service provider for creating natural, wild, maintenance-free, native forests. Afforestt, works passionately on and off-site to provide the best solutions at the lowest possible cost. Shubendu is an Ashoka Fellow. And his idea has been featured in many publications, such as Fast Company.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity a lot, but more than innovation I would put in consistency, in between creativity and innovation. You have to be consistent. You have to keep delivering.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Marcin Jakubowski Founder and Executive Director of Open Source Ecology developing open source industrial machines that can be made for a fraction of commercial costs, and sharing our designs online for free.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Show and Tell. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur and there’s so much promotion on entrepreneurship. But how many good entrepreneurs do you get out of all these forums, out of all these centres? No, the good entrepreneur is working very hard in his job or in his lab. You’re gonna meet them 2 years later, but through their produces, and that is why I said Show and Tell.”
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Brian Scudamore
Brian Scudamore
Founder and CEO O2E [Ordinary 2 Exceptional] brands e.g. 1-800-GOT-JUNK
“Crazy is thinking you can change the world.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A little cowboyish. Somebody who doesn’t fall into traditional rules and structures. Someone who doesn’t follow the normal path and takes the road less travelled.”
BRIAN’S BIO
Brian Scudamore is Founder and CEO of O2E [Ordinary 2 Exceptional] brands: 1-800-GOT-JUNK? helping residents and businesses remove junk, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING providing one day completion and high-quality work with a spotless clean-up, You Move Me, who mission is to move people, not just their boxes, and Shack Shine cleaning interior & exterior windows, gutter cleaning, power washing, exterior house washing & house detailing.
WHY BRIAN WAS INTERVIEWED
Brian was recommended to me as someone to include in the project. He said yes because he liked my persistence and that I had a clear reason for doing the project. As I was determined, he was happy to help. Brian is genuine, true to himself, accepting of himself, humble, fun and a good person.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Mavericks are creative people by nature, because theres rules they’ve got to figure a way over, around, through. They’ve got to think creatively and they do by nature. If you think creatively that is being innovative – innovation is just finding the better way.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Steve Jobs, the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor, Richard Branson the English businessman and investor and Ryan Holmes the computer programmer and internet entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Hootsuite. The Kenyan kids that Brian met on his travels also inspire the heck out of him.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“It’s accepting your weaknesses and playing to your strengths, not trying to fix the things that are wrong, and be happy with who you are.”
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Catherine Ryan Hyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Author and President Pay It Forward Foundation
“Crazy is doing what you love, what you think you’ve been put on earth to do, every day, paid or not, and believing the money will follow – Except it’s not crazy, because it works.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Somebody who listens to their own guidance and goes the way that actually feels correct to them because without realizing it we have a tendency to look at the people around us and see what they’re doing and kind of copy off their paper. I don’t mean it as a type of cheating. I mean somehow we’re trained as we grow up to stay inside the norm cos it’s safer in there, and I think if we just really do what we think is our calling to do. When I was a struggling author, when I wasn’t really published and I wasn’t making money as an author but I was doing what I loved to do all day long, it really struck me how unusual that made me. How few people I knew were getting up and doing what they loved all day long. It’s almost a defiant act all in itself, to follow your bliss instead of doing that compromised responsible thing.”
WHY CATHERINE WAS INTERVIEWED
I was explaining the term Pay It Forward to Maverick Luke Hemmant whilst interviewing him and wanted to send him a trailer of the movie and came across the Pay It Forward Foundation. When I contacted them they connected me with Catherine and she loved the idea of the project. Catherine is kind, honest, true to herself and inspirational.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I think it must be. I think the thing you learn about creativity is to be there when it calls. Not so much what it is or how to make it work but just, I mean I can’t really explain electricity to you either and I can’t see it but I know to flip the switch when I want it to come on. And I’m not saying creativity can be worked like a switch, I’m just saying there are things you know about it and then things you don’t. But I do think that not being a maverick, that sort of toeing a line is anti-creativity. I think to me when people write and it kind of misses, people are writing something and it kind of misses, it misses me anyway. I get the distinct impression that it was written between their left and right ear and they really kind of constructed this in their brain, and I think that’s what we’re encouraged to do. We’re encouraged to just take control of the situation and bring our human resources to it. And so I think that there’s a place to really dip into creativity you have to get outside of what they tell us to do. Innovation is synonymous because innovation has to be something that isn’t what everybody’s been doing all along. So it’s pretty hard to toe the party line while doing something that nobody’s ever thought to try.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Laverne Cox the transgender actress.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“It’s hard advice to follow. Look more closely at the part of you that’s afraid of being criticised. Nobody likes it. To this very day I don’t like being publically criticised. You have to look at that and say, in what way is this damaging me really? We have some very ancient knee jerk reactions to things, like I think there was a time when we lived very tribally and to be ostracised from the community would really kind of equal death. So we have this deadly fear that people are going to disapprove of us. I don’t really think it has much common application to our lives today, so just look more closely at this situation. Why do you avoid criticism so staunchly? And is there anyway you can just not like it but also not go to any lengths to avoid it. Because it’s very limiting and mavericks get beaten down by what other people think…There was a time in my life definitely when I felt that call of wanting everybody to like me and I felt a very definite shift when I realised that there is limited value being liked by people you don’t like, or being approved of by people whose lives you don’t admire. So I went from wanting to be liked and respected by everybody, to wanting to be liked and respected by people I like and respect. I would very much suggest that shift to anyone, because there’s a level at which if I’m pleasing an unscrupulous person I’m doing something wrong.”
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Kevin Royes
Kevin Royes
Founder/Soulcial-Preneur The Soulcial-Preneurs Club
“Crazy is what moves the world forward in leaps and bounds.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“I think the word rebel comes to mind. I think of horses actually, independent, strong, has a vision, isn’t bound by societies stories and is more led by their vision.”
KEVIN’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Kevin-Royes.png)
Kevin Lee Royes is Founder / Soulcial-Preneur The Soulcial-Preneurs Club because more passion driven, socially conscious entrepreneurs we have on the planet, the better everything will be. He is CoFounder/Creative Director All In a Day where you scramble around Vancouver engaging in a series of iconic activities and food that put the town on the map. Founded in 2008 the first year had 4 events (snowboard, mountain bike, golf and dinner). By 2015 the event grew to 10 events in 24 hours (yoga, breakfast, kayak, hike, lunch, bike, beach party, dinner, dancing, sunrise, beach bonfire).
Kevin is a passionate, lifelong soulcial-preneur who started his first business in high school at the age of 16. Sometimes called an inventor-preneur, Kevin holds several patents and has brought over 200 products to market in the snowboard, toy and hand tool sectors. His designs have been distributed in over 35 countries with retail customers ranging from boutique shops in Japan to the Museum of Modern Art in NY as well as Costco, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot. Other customers include powerhouse global brands such as Nike, Energizer, Toyota, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Manchester United, the list goes on.
His inventions have been featured in major media such as Maxim, STUFF, The Today Show and the Oprah magazine. With his urban multi-tool invention, Kelvin.23, he appeared on the reality TV show, Dragons’ Den where he shook hands on one of the most historic episodes recorded and was called, “… the most successful business EVER…”, on the show.
WHY KEVIN WAS INTERVIEWED
A friend of mine Amy Elderkin Co-Founder and Managing Director Popcorn recommended I interview Kevin. Kevin is zen, connected to himself purpose-driven, genuine and led by his heart.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so question not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Richard Branson the English businessman and investor. Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. Chip Wilson Canadian businessman and philanthropist.”
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Darren Robson
Darren Robson
Founder DRArete, Chief Storyteller/Firestarter Ministry of Entrepreneurship
“Crazy is not following your dream and living a life less ordinary.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Somebody who not only thinks internally different but actually does things different. So for me a maverick is someone who doesn’t necessarily follow the conventional wisdom, very clearly thinks outside the box, but much more than that. They don’t do it for artificial reasons. They do it because it’s absolutely core to their psychological DNA. They can’t help themselves. They just HAVE to kind of do things differently. It’s hard wired in them and often very driven to live a full, a kind of unique lifestyle or to create unique value in the world. And I think increasingly the really interesting mavericks are the ones who are driven to really make a difference to the world. Create a real legacy is the world. They’re the kind of mavericks that I think are really really exciting.”
DARREN’S BIO
Darren Robson is Founder of DRArete Ltd a boutique advisory, consultancy coaching and mentoring organization, Chief Storyteller/Firestarter for the Ministry of Entrepreneurship [MOE], a philanthropic venture that provides entrepreneurial services and mentoring opportunities to young people from less privileged backgrounds and communities. He is also Director of Strategy, Innovation & Partnerships & Global Social Innovation Leader for the Association for Coaching [AC] as part of the Global Board overseeing the growth and development of the AC teams in 40+ countries Darren is a serial purposeful entrepreneur and social innovator who loves working with senior clients in complex, agile and challenging environments.
WHY DARREN WAS INTERVIEWED
I was introduced to Darren by Katherine Tulpa Group CEO for the Association for Coaching. I met Darren and learnt about him and his interests which led to my becoming Association for Coaching Research Lead in London, contributing Research Sound Bites for the UK Bulletin of the Association for Coaching. When I commenced this project I knew Darren enough to know he was a maverick. Darren knows his legacy, is purpose driven, genuine is ordinary yet extraordinary.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so question not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
Early interview so question not asked.
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Danae Ringelmann
Danae Ringelmann
“Crazy is what others call you when you embark to change the world, and what others call themselves once you have.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who doesn’t think of themselves as a maverick first and foremost. Because what they try to do or be everyday is authentic to what they see and believe is needed. It’s based on their experience and observation and both sensing and thinking. But they do what they think is truly needed and it comes from their own experience and their own questioning, they’re not trying to apply someone else’s solve.”
WHY DANAE WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Danae at Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together startups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship, curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. I heard Danae speak and knew straight away that she was a maverick. Danae is authentic, real, caring and brave.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity and innovation is required to do what’s needed.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“My dad.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Get out of your head and start experiencing things and paying attention to how you respond to those experiences organically, and what that tells you about yourself and what you love, are good at and what you notice about the world and what it needs.”
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Rod Quin
Rod Quin
“Crazy is as crazy innovates and disrupts; not really crazy at all ”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A maverick to me in the business context is someone who is breaking boundaries, who is changing people’s minds by doing something that wasn’t thought of before or breaks the given parameters of a set of ideas about behaviour or how something works or says no it doesn’t have to be that way.”
ROD’S BIO
Rod Quinn is Founder/CEO of Ombrae an Optical TileTM technology born of his passion for art, architecture, photography, science, and technology. It started as a physical, conceptual sculpture and 3D computer model in 1993.
“…as a Sculptor I sought a way to carve light…in the end; I found my chisel to be a shadow and the computer my hammer….”
Previously Rod was Art Director, Set Designer, Sculptor, and Special Effects Technician in the film industry and worked on films such as Fantastic Four 1, I Robot, Bird on a Wire and Lake Placid to name a few.
WHY ROD WAS INTERVIEWED
Rod presented the Optical Tile technology at an Innovation Labs Meetup and I knew he’d be an interesting maverick to interview. Rod is artistic, a big-picture thinker, creative and open.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“To be a maverick you have to be driven by a creative idea or something. I’m sure Richard Branson is driven by, or Steve Jobs or somebody they’re driven by an internal creative fire. And I think creativity depending on who it’s burning in, can take whatever shape or form. Innovation is the mental space that a maverick lives. It’s emotional as much as mental. It’s fundamentally an emotional drive that manifests in the mind and I think that’s the innovation fuel that a maverick burns.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“I don’t have a list. I listen and try and learn from lots of different perspectives.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Never say no!”
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Bruce Poon Tip
Bruce Poon Tip
Business Leader, Entrepreneur, Social Innovator, Author, Honey Badger and Captain G Adventures
“Crazy is trying to separate work and life as if they are two separate sentient beings who should never meet.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Mavericks are what move the world forward. So progression or evolution of society, is moved forward by people that will brave ridicule by thinking different.”
BRUCES’ BIO
Bruce is Captain of G Adventures, the Great Adventure People that create adventures that are meaningful and memorable ways to experience something unexpected and extraordinary. It started with Bruce’s passion and vision for authentic sustainable travels and today Bruce and G Adventures is recognised and awarded for leadership and outstanding business practices, such as Top 100 Employers and 50 Best Managed Companies, plus Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, Entrepreneur of the Year, 100 Leaders of Tomorrow and Top 10 Entrepreneurs in Canada, Ethics in Action award. Bruce is the author of Looptail: How one company changed the world by reinventing business and Do Big Small Things.
WHY BRUCE WAS INTERVIEWED
Being an adventurer myself I was looking to book a G Adventure to Bhutan for our Adventure-moon. G Adventures were hosting a meet up locally and we went along and won the 1st and 2nd prize gift vouchers to use towards our next trip. One of the prizes was the book Looptail and when I said, ‘I’d have been happy with the book’ Cynthia Connell Concept Store Manager handed me a copy of the book. When I explained the Business Mavericks project she said, ‘OMG you’ve got to interview Bruce, he’s a complete maverick,’ and connected me with the Mayor [Bruce’s P.A]. Bruce is fun, direct, spiritual and caring.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Being a maverick, it’s everything to do with creativity. Innovation is going to creativity, and innovation to me is defined by what we’ve yet to do as opposed to what you’ve done. I think most businesses and most educational institutions talk about innovation as what companies are doing. I view innovation in the world of what you’ve yet to do.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Jeff Bezos, Entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer, Founder and CEO of Amazon.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Listen to your heart.”
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Shilen Patel
Shilen Patel
Co Founder Independents United
“Crazy is the happiness that I derive from raging against the mediocrity of the status quo.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“There’s something about thinking differently, but I guess mostly for me it would be about what drives the desire to do things differently. A maverick is someone who has an intrinsic compulsion to challenge the status quo, and isn’t afraid to go out on a limb because of that. It’s two constituent parts: an intrinsic desire to challenge the status quo and as a result of that being pretty happy to be the only person to hold that particular point of view because you believe it to be correct.”
SHILEN’S BIO
Shilen Patel is a Co-Founder of Independents United, an innovation agency which helps companies create disruptive growth through an entrepreneurial approach. He is also CEO of Distill Ventures, the world’s first accelerator dedicated to supporting and growing the next generation of startup spirits entrepreneurs and a partnership with Diageo. He is an investor in, and mentor to, numerous technology startups such as Osper. He has a passion for fabulous food, delightful drinks and scary skiing.
WHY SHILEN WAS INTERVIEWED
Shilen was introduced to me by Chris Barez Brown of Upping Your Elvis [who I had interviewed]. He told Shilen I was ‘chuffing great, doing some research into mavericks and he had felt richer for being interviewed’. Shilen is passionate, grateful, rounded, self aware, transparent and open.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity has to be related to being a maverick. So Chris [Barez Brown] taught me that people self define themselves as being creative or not, but actually we all have it within us to be creative. Giving yourself permission to be creative is all that needs to happen but I think creativity is important because it’s about seeing the possibilities. And if you’ve convinced yourself you’re not creative, you’re never going to ask yourself the question that might lead to something better. You’re just going to make a pile of assumptions. Innovation for me is just the execution of creativity. The move from a nice big bold idea and getting off your arse and doing it. Innovation’s absolutely important to being a maverick, because mavericks don’t get off on big bold ideas, they get off on making them happen and seeing the change that resulted.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Any one who is even slightly fighting what you might call the system. People like Chris [Barez Brown] who just breathes releasing huge amounts of creative entrepreneurial innovative potential in the world by what they do and the very being they are.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Don’t ever lose belief that your maverickness will add value and will help. Don’t let anyone put you off or make you believe that isn’t what you should try and do.”
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Darius Norell
Darius Norell
Leadership Coach/Consultant People and their Brilliance. Co-Founder Spring Project
“Crazy is having confidence when faced with uncertainty .”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who does things differently, questions why all the time; why do things in a particular way, and doesn’t assume just because they’ve been done a certain way or, everyone’s been doing things a certain way that that’s even a good way or it’s necessarily the right way to be doing something.”
DARIUS’ BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Darius-Norell.png)
Darius Norell is a Leadership Consultant who believes and is attracted to ‘Brilliance’ as an area of work, both in the literal sense of seeing more people shining more of the time, and in the idea of Brilliance as ‘The capacity to create extraordinary value with integrity’. He is deeply committed to developing this in himself and others. Darius is Trustee of The 100 Hours Foundation which brings wise, compassionate living and leadership to the heart of every child’s education Previously he was CoFounder of The Spring Project a social enterprise that expands people’s capacity to create extra-ordinary value with integrity, in their life and work. It was created by the founders of Elemental Practice in response to the global mass youth unemployment crisis.
WHY DARIUS WAS INTERVIEWED
Darius was introduced to me by my then coach Jeremy Mead who understood the project. I met Darius when he was working with a group of young people at the London Stock Exchange. When I commenced the Business Mavericks project recalled him and knew he was a good fit. Darius is a kind-hearted, genuine and creative leader.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity is integral to being able to come up with new ideas and approaches to kind of consider different possibilities. The result of being a maverick might be some innovation, but innovation feels a bit purposeful and part of being a maverick is kind of being different without purpose; just a natural state of inquiry into how things are and how they might be different.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Ricardo Semlar CEO of Semco Partners practices a radical form of corporate democracy, rethinking everything from board meetings to how workers report their vacation days (they don’t have to). Maria Montessori physician and educator, founder of Montessori education. Rudolf Steiner philosopher, author, social reformer, architect, and esotericist.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Stay true to what’s most important. Notice when this puts you at odds with everything and everyone around you. Congratulations you are a maverick.”
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Phil Noelting
Phil Noelting
Founder and President Qwalify Inc
“Crazy is that little bit in each of us that reminds us of what we are capable, making our irrational ideas a reality.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who paves their own path and looks at big ideas, big opportunities, not in terms of barriers but actually as opportunities to tackle and every barrier as a way to see most of the competition or others fall by the wayside. I would see it as someone who really sees the path as opposed to the blockades.”
PHIL’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Phil-Noelting.png)
Phil Noelting is Founder and President of Qwalify Inc. a SaaS-based HR technology company disrupting the talent engagement and recruitment space. Why? Unfortunately, hiring tends to be a reactive process, and the current benchmarks often leave employers settling for talent to meet deadlines. Proactive recruitment is here, and it’s only going to grow. Previously he was Co-Founder of ImpactFULL and Founder of Skilter. Phil’s 2012 entry to the Peter Drucker Challenge Essay Contest. Themed, “Reinventing Work, Reinventing Organisation won 1st prize.
Phil loves travelling, and everything that it entails – new cultures, meeting new people, the photography, the food, the opportunities. Phil is devoted to see more of the world every year.
WHY PHIL WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Phil at Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together startups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship, curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. One conversation was enough to release he was disrupting an industry. Phil is genuine, down to earth and brave.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“If you look at left brain vs. right brain. If you have an entirely systematic way of thinking which is always based on boundaries and rules and a set of obliged things to live by then you inherently impede your creativity in that sense. So to me creativity is absolutely tied to being a maverick. There are many facets of creativity, so it doesn’t have to be the utmost creativity where there’s zero structure and you move forward and you do all this random stuff that’s never been done before or it can be selective creativity, but does not need to be the centrepoint of it all. Mavericks strive on innovation, whether it’s innovation on something that’s not actually innovative. It could be an innovative way of billing a client, which doesn’t actually create much, but it’s a huge maverick thought to change an entire industry on the servicing side when it comes to money transfers. So I would say every aspect of maverick thinking would have to be innovative in some regard, not necessarily inventing something new but re-imagining a process to come to the same or better conclusion.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Everyone we brought on as an advisor to our company.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“It would be two-tiered. One tier is surround yourself with people that you constantly crave learning from and who you will never ever ever ever, you can’t even think of a scenario where you would screen their calls. The second thing would be to never stop the thinking process because even though you have come to a very awesome conclusion, there’s a more awesome conclusion somewhere.”
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Judi Neal
Judi Neal
Chairman and CEO Edgewalkers International
“Crazy is seeing something that no one else can see and the willingness to jump in with both feet to make it happen, because you just know it will make the world a better place. And when you turn out to be right, then they call you brilliant!”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who doesn’t buy into all the rules of the system. Who see’s something bigger going on and goes after it; something that moves humanity forward.”
WHY JUDI WAS INTERVIEWED
I commenced reading Edgewalkers and could see the correlation in Judi’s work and even though I had taught Leadership and Change Management in 3 universities in London I had not come across anyone who had explored leadership and spirituality. I stopped reading the book and asked to interview Judi. She is spiritual, brave, guided by her inner voice, a really kind and encouraging lady.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity and innovation are the drivers for a maverick. As a maverick I must create. I think all human beings are creative. I mean look at what we’ve done to the whole planet out of our creativity. We are always innovating and always creating and it’s human nature. It’s just amped up for people like me; I think the dial is turned higher.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Mel Toomey whose work centers on the development of people preparing to engage in breakthrough levels of leadership at the scale of an organization—people who will lead change from the view that it is a condition to be mastered not a problem to be solved.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Take time for self reflection, however that is for you, whether it’s journalling, being in nature or having a coach or spiritual advisor. It’s like you’ve got to take time to know yourself, so that time for self reflection would be a key one. And the other is to really trust your heart or whatever bodily part it is that gives you the information about what it is you’re to do. Trust that even when it seems crazy.”
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Joseph Nakhla
Joseph Nakhla
Founder and CEO of Bazinga!
“Crazy is what we do today against all logic that others think is completely logical tomorrow.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“People that see things that others don’t see. They see the invisible and do the impossible. Mavericks that influence me are the ones that have such thick skin and a clear vision.”
JOSEPH’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Bazinga-logo-300x196.png)
Joseph Nakhla is a technologist with a passion for solving real-life problems. He is Founder and CEO of Bazinga!, the world’s first cloud-based platform designed to solve many of the problems people experience in living in cities and bring harmony back to communities. Joseph has spent his professional life in startups and loves mavericks. Previously Joseph spent almost two decades as an entrepreneur overseeing sales, marketing, product development, support and more for products that touched hundreds of millions of people’s daily lives. He believes that it takes guts to build something from scratch, but it takes your soul to see it through.
WHY JOSEPH WAS INTERVIEWED
Marc Carn showed me an article on Joseph Nakhla after Bazinga had given a talk in his organisation. The idea was different and that usually leads to a ‘different thinking’ idea generator. I contacted Joseph and he was game on. Joseph is honest, good, doing the right thing and impacting people.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I would say creativity and mavericks is not related. I destruct complex problems and come at them with simple solutions and everybody says that’s creativity. But I actually look at people who create things that are so phenomenally amazing I can’t even belong. I’m more comfortable with the innovation tag than the creative tag. You have to start building an innovation bridge between where you are and where that amazing thing is, then I take technology and innovate through to what that bridge will look like.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“My father, he was an incredibly honest man, non-corrupt man even though he always had the most ‘corruptible’ jobs in his career.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Be comfortable in your own skin, that’s the most important thing – period. So for hire I’m not looking for the most talented people but people comfortable in their own skin. They just have to have some talents to fit someone in the job. Usually one of the biggest problems for mavericks is people don’t see what your seeing. It’s having the conviction in your heart to find it’s own channels to come out of your mouth, to come out in your behaviour, because that’s usually a difficult thing for people to do. They have it in there, but it’s just difficult, we’ve all struggled with that. Some of us are more blessed with oratory ways of communicating that or we’re not all created equally that way. But you can’t give up on that, you’ve got to battle to get these things out.”
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Brendan Murray
Brendan Murray
Catalyst Opportunity Development Strategist Shell Oil
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who has their own style, doesn’t worry about having to conform to a set of protocol or procedure.”
BRENDAN’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Brendan-Murray-logo.png)
Brendan Murray is Catalyst Opportunity Development Strategist at Shell Oil. In addition Dr Murray is often asked to work closely with joint venture partners and select global customers. In his 22 years at Shell, he has been involved in a number of commercial developments in the petrochemical and refining fields. His most important contributions have been in zeolite catalysis, novel catalytic processes, surfactants and difficult separations.
WHY BRENDAN WAS INTERVIEWED
Brendan was introduced to me by Safa George President for Shell Global Solutions. Brendan is detailed, passionate and thinks differently.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“There is a creativity component with it but it’s a willingness to think broadly, it’s what I like to think of rather than be focused on only one way of doing things and one aspect. I think how can we accomplish this task? What are potentially the best ways? Or what are all of the ways? Or what are many of the ways? And then you can make choices and if you have to make choices to chose from, I think you’re always better off.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“My peers at Shell Oil.”
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Arunachalam Muruganantham
Arunachalam Muruganantham
Founder Jayashree Industries
“Crazy is… I hate copycat world.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Comes out of box something. So I’m that person from my childhood I hate routine work. I hate routine day. I always think about something a solution that’s simple, so that makes me maverick maybe. Not doing something, not going to happen something. So in my mind I will say, everything can be possible.”
ARUNACHALAM’S BIO
Arunachalam Muruganantham is Founder of Jayaashree Industries, a social entrepreneur, and inventor of the low-cost sanitary napkin making machine. His vision is to make India a 100% napkin-using country. Muruganantham re-engineered a sanitary machine, and in 2006 it won the award for the best innovation for the betterment of society from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. He also received an Indian presidential award for innovation. Arunachalam was voted one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people of 2014 and has recently received the Padama Shree Award by the Government of India.
WHY ARUNACHALAM WAS INTERVIEWED
Upworthy who share awesome, fun, interesting videos and graphics about stuff that matters posted on a man who had revolutionized sanitary pads for women in India by thinking like a woman. I read the post and realised Muruganatham was a maverick. 6 months later Murugantham says Yes, and he is going to be in Seattle. I find he is due to be presenting on Cultures of Innovation at the Grand Challenges a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems, part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I got myself down there and in that room by attending as a freelance journalist who would write a piece on the event and interviewed Murgantham just before he went on stage with Bill Gates. Muruganantham is humble, down to earth, realistic. I learn this more and more as we converse and meet. He asks me when I’m going to interview Bill Gates, and I say, as soon as he says Yes.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Maverick and creativity are definitely related. The moment you feel something, you are doing something different. The difference you show it in making things. You are not able to make then don’t brand yourself as a maverick. It’s mad. The moment you pronounce the word innovation it is something unknown. So the moment you’re attempting to do something unknown then it is not understand by other people or by the world. So that’s why you get branded into maverick.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“I don’t have such a thing, because the moment you are having such a thing in your mind, you are just an incremental out of it and I am an original piece – that’s it.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Don’t try to persuade your wife, your families or society. You spend time on that you’re not going to achieve.”
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Emma Morley
Emma Morley
Founder and Project Director Trifle Creative
“Crazy is sticking in a job you don’t love, moaning about your life when you never do anything differently, not taking risks, not making the most of the precious time we have on this planet.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Somebody that takes risks; that is never looking at how other people do things and just doing them in the same way; somebody who is always looking for different ways to solve the challenges of business or life.”
EMMA’S BIO
Emma Morley is Founder and Project Director of Trifle Creative a fresh and creative commercial interior design company. She is a Creative Doer whose passion is to create inspiring environments that make working lives and experiences brilliant. Previously she worked freelance in Event Production & Design, Project Management & Design Consultancy. Emma also worked in a variety of roles at What If! The innovation company that has dared companies to be different since 1992.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Being a maverick is very much related to creativity. If you think about how children behave and respond to the world around them we can learn a lot – they have an openness to the world which impacts on how they look at things. It is very very easy to think that everything in life just has to be done in a very set way. I feel the opposite is true . You can be serious and creative, process driven and creative. The greatest innovation comes about when people are experimenting, taking risks, trying things out in different ways, not afraid of failing. If you think about the greatest rule breakers of our time they are people who just got on with it, there’s no reason things can’t be done in another way if you follow your gut and take a chance, who knows what will come of it. What’s the worst that can happen – failure means you just learn more.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Thomas Heatherwick Designer of the 2012 Olympic games cauldron and the upcoming Garden Bridge over the River Thames.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
- “Listen to your gut instinct, it’s the best guide you have got.
- Spend a lot of time saying ‘yes’ and seeing where it takes you.
- Seek experts where you lack the knowledge or expertise – you don’t know everything.
- You learn from failures as well as successes so don’t be afraid to take a leap into the unknown, you never know where it will take you, and learn from the gaffes you make – they are inevitable.
- Enjoy the ride.”
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Jill McRae
Jill McRae
VP Sales & Marketing Leading Brands Inc [Happy Water]
“Crazy is a word used by conformists to describe free spirits.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“The word maverick has a slight edge of cockiness and confidence to it. That would be the negative side of it. I am all about creation, for me, I’ve been an artist, a working artist. Any endeavor that involves creativity is for me spiritual as well as a life purpose event. So I feel that anybody that’s a maverick is creating something and I think at it’s very base that to be termed a maverick in my mind you’d have to do it with a certain swagger and a cocky sense of your abilities.”
JILL’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Jill-McRae-.png)
Jill is VP of Sales & Marketing at Leading Brands Inc and the heart behind Happy Water. She is the Founder of Brantra.com. Jill is a branding coach who helps you discover what is most genuine, unique, and valuable to you.
WHY JILL WAS INTERVIEWED
I won a competition with Happy Water that Jill was part of http://livehappywater.ca and got talking to Chloe Popove who brought the gift over and when she heard about the Business Mavericks project said, ‘You have to meet Jill.’ Jill is genuine, down to earth, in tune and spiritual.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity for me just means we’re all dealing in ideas that’s all, whether they’re a product or whether they’re a thought or a concept. So creativity is basically taking a concept and seeing it through the concept of whatever it’s going to manifest itself as. So for me, it happens to be beverage products, for somebody else they could be toiletries or happy stickers or socks. It doesn’t matter but for me, it all starts there. It has to start there. What is a maverick if it isn’t somebody with a new unique thought? Mavericks are who bring us innovation. I mean if we were all mid-level managers, in massive corporations justifying our existence in the boring and mundane job that we hate, the world wouldn’t be moving forward at all. I believe it’s the pioneers that got on their wagons you know and came West, you know the new frontier. It’s history repeating itself. You know the people who went to settle in mountains of Bhutan to do things in a completely different way than every other country basically in the world. This exists everywhere. It’s the same over and over. It’s somebody with a brave new idea and the guts to go for it. The fearlessness to go for it.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Ralph McRae President and CEO at Leading Brands Inc [and her husband].”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Be absolutely 100% true to yourself in every decision you make and be uncompromising in your choices.”
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Boris Mann
Boris Mann
Founding Partner Full Stack
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“It’s the code name for Apple’s most recent operating system, which they conveniently also dropped the price of that operating system to zero, whereas Microsoft still charges $300-400 for a copy of Windows. That’s interesting so I think part of it is thinking differently. A phrase that my business partner Lance and I use a lot is that we’re looking for new mistakes to make. So what that means is we’ve made mistakes before and we’ve hopefully learned from them and we don’t want to make the same mistakes. On the other hand, we’re not being constrained by, oh this hasn’t been done before, let’s only do something that has been done.”
BORIS’ BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Boris-Mann.png)
Boris is Founding Partner at Full Stack, an angel stage investing firm. Managing Partner at Human which improves & creates products through prototypes, business design, and interaction research. And is an advisor for Mobify and PROXXI Industrial Wearables Inc.
WHY BORIS WAS INTERVIEWED
Boris was recommended to me by Mark Busse Co-Founder and Principal at Industrial Brand who I had already interviewed. Boris is direct, fun, and has a dry sense of humour.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I think it’s a combination of not just creativity because then we’d have to define what the hell that means. But taking lessons, pattern recognition, making leaps of intuition between different things, and on the fly being able to collate the situation, and saying well what if we did x, y and z and apply that to the common sense gene where you’re not saying let’s put clowns in a bus and drive them around, but you’re doing something that’s actually fairly close to the mark and people say, ‘how did you put those pieces together?’ I just thought of it. Innovation is the same again and is, unfortunately, an overused word. Creativity is a better one. Innovation means, hell I don’t know how. I’d almost correlate innovation very strongly with being a maverick. You can innovate in a number of different ways. As a technologist, you can innovate and make a leap and make changes in technology. One of the smartest technologists the other day said to me, ‘I want to innovate around our business model, just as much as we’ve innovated around the technology. So you can choose areas to innovate around and the current state of the world will make certain things easier or harder and of course, you need to slightly lead what the mass market is, otherwise anybody can be doing it.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Make artifacts. Your biggest challenge is going to be when you have one of your occasional pauses, is to be able to try and look backward and make sense of the path and really reflect on those leaps that you’ve made, because you’ll lose track of those leaps. So when I say artifact I do that very strongly. I have a link blog. I’ve been blogging for 10 years. I haven’t done much in the way of recordings or other things like that, but writing and getting it out there so that’s one of the ways I sometimes search my own archives. Or I use Evernote strongly to keep notes on all sorts of things and if you don’t make an effort to get these things out of your head then it will be very hard for you to make a building block that you can go to the next level on. I think the biggest insights that I’ve had is that people who were in this mode will initially do various point things that are like quick burning spikes. I’m gonna get some people together and I’m gonna do an event. I’m gonna 200 people. It’s gonna be great. That’s great unless you say let’s do this event for 3 years or this event will then lead on to getting those group of people to do the next thing and investing in growing and you’ll constantly look back and you’ve burnt a lot of kindling but you haven’t gone to that next step that you need to do. Figure out a framework of how you’re going to do building blocks rather than just point in time flashes.”
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Greg Malpass
Greg Malpass
CEO and Founder Traction on Demand
“Crazy is focusing not on a goal or milestone, but rather on a feeling. It’s about being wrong more than right, and still rolling the dice. It’s about laser focus on outcomes, while still sprinting across a balance beam in pure enjoyment. It’s about listening as if you are the dumbest person in the room, and acting as the bravest. It’s about seeing through the noise – eyes shut and ears open. It’s about believing the good things others believe in you and ignoring everything else. It’s about believing the one truth about rules; that they should be viewed as recommended speed limits and nothing else.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone that’s kind of brave enough to roll things back to assume everything is not new, to look at history as a source of wisdom, but almost view it as a source of paths and beg the question around whether or not things can be done completely differently.”
GREG’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Greg-Malpass.png)
Greg Malpass is CEO and Founder of Traction on Demand, a cloud technology consultancy and software development firm. He’s the first to admit that his intentions in starting Traction were very simple: to serve a small number of clients and help them better unite their sales and marketing teams. Contrary to his early intentions, and using his unconventional leadership style, Greg has grown Traction into a nationally recognized brand with 200+ Tractionites, and in 2014, Traction was named top 10 best place to work in Canada for the past three consecutive years. While Greg rarely admits to having a plan (or business guess), he is the first to share his hopes for Traction, which are to build a company that plays a positive and purposeful role in the lives of its team members, customers, partners and community.
WHY GREG WAS INTERVIEWED
Greg was recommended to by Marc Carn who was creating the new Traction offices that contained an air streamed trailer as an internal feature. Marc suggested Greg as a definite maverick to include. Greg is a fast executing creative visionary who knows how to have fun.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I’m certain there’s mavericks out there that aren’t creative but they’re rigid in what they want an outcome or a feeling to be right. And so that’s certainly another kind of form of being a maverick. In my world creativity is HUGE because it’s trying to find the most efficient way of accomplishing the task. I blend creativity and innovation. Innovation is just basically taking what’s existing and making everything better. So my core why, have you ever read The Why Engine? It’s a great little book. My why is always improving, never satisfied.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Greg Kerfoot Owner and Chairman of Vancouver Whitecaps. Tom Waller Director of Innovation Lululemon Athletica. Elon Musk engineer, inventor, explorer.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Isolate the things that are holding them back and eliminate it.”
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Richard Loat
Richard Loat
Founder and CEO Sport for Food
“Crazy is thinking we can live lives that would ever be considered normal. It’s not what we are. It’s not who we are.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Someone who is a bit of a wild card, a cowboy in a sense. A trailblazer, pioneer, a bit of a risk taker.”
RICHARD’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Richard-Loat-logo.png)
Richard Loat is Founder and CEO of Sport for Food which aims to tackle hunger across the world using grass-roots street sports as a vehicle for social change that transcends borders, languages, and distance bringing fans together. As one of the world’s quickest growing social movements, Sport for Food mobilizes and engages socially conscious individuals by harnessing their passions for either street hockey, basketball or football to bring local communities together in the name of a great cause. Richard is a Business Developer for Laureus and a Shelter Box Response Team Member.
WHY RICHARD WAS INTERVIEWED
I came across Richard’s work with Five Hole for Food and knew I wanted to interview him. Richard is a determined, focused, mature, purpose driven dreamer.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Being a maverick is linked to thinking outside the box. Creativity is slightly different but yes is linked. I think what’s interesting is that thinking outside the box is the status quo, so how do you begin to think outside the box that is thinking outside the box.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Richard Branson the English businessman and investor.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Being a maverick will not feel comfortable. It doesn’t feel normal. Make your own normal. Make uncomfortable your comfortable.”
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Kayli Levitan
Kayli Levitan
Co Founder The Street Store
“Crazy is what makes you think in, out & around the box – at once. It forces you to go & try. It’s chutzpah. It’s passion. It’s everything.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A maverick is a person who has a different way of looking at things. Not just around them, but at themselves. So in my mind I’m a copywriter in an advertising agency, but I’m not limited to that just because I studied it. By opening your mind you allow yourself to do so much more, like start an organization as part of your day-to-day job. A maverick is someone who just thinks differently.”
KAYLI’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Kayli-Levitan.jpg)
Kayli Levitan is Co Founder of The Street Store, the world’s first rent-free, premises free, free ‘pop up clothing store’ for the homeless, found entirely on the street and stocked by donations.
She is also Creative Group Head/Copywriter at M&C Saatchi Abel and Co-owner and writer for The Food Blog Group.
WHY KAYLI WAS INTERVIEWED
I came across The Street Store via Upworthy and immediately connected with Kayli. She has a real depth of character and has a novel way of seeing the world.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Whether it’s a creative industry like advertising, or as you said earlier, mining or anything – creativity isn’t colours and bells and whistles. Creativity is a different way of looking at an idea, it’s a different mindset. Maverickisms, if that’s a word, is having that different mindset and you don’t have to have a poster that sings and dances and somehow tweets answers to your thoughts, or to be able to come up with a new way of mining or a new way of the print press. Maverick is creative, but it’s still technical. Innovation allows creativity. It’s like a triangle: you can be creative. But being creative and innovative allows you to be a maverick.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Mike Abel CEO of M&CSaatchi Abel and my Creative Director Gordon Ray.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Stop being scared of not trying. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You’ll never know if you don’t give it a bash. I hope in darkness we can see and you’re not blinded by the light from me. I believe everyone can have a light and that you can’t be frightened by the darkness and the negativity and the fear and worry in your life because you must just let that light happen.”
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Debbie Landa
Debbie Landa
“Crazy is following the herd on a crowded path.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Mavericks are people who are unique unto themselves. They are first to try things, first to do things, first explorers. They’re original, they’re risk takers and they go for it.”
DEBBIE’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Debbie-Landa.png)
Debbie Landa is CEO of Dealmaker Media a media company and a network of innovators who see the opportunities in building relationships and sharing information about trends and the future. From early-stage startups with an eye for disruption, to some of the most influential companies in the world. She is also an Investor in both Upside Partnership a true seed-stage investment firm building a portfolio of purpose-built founders creating high potential companies, and Buddybuild world’s first mobile iteration platform for iOS and Android . Debbie is also General Manager & Executive Producer of the Grow Conference – about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship and General Manager and & Executive Producer of Under the Radar Conference, Silicon Valley’s most effective showcase and business development conference.
Her conferences bring together leading executives looking to discover the next great startup and partners that can accelerate their growth. Over 500 emerging startups from Linkedin, Admob, Rightscale to Box.net have presented at her conferences. She is considered a curator of innovation and has become one of the most influential connectors in Silicon Valley. Before starting Dealmaker Media, she ran business development for a venture “catalyst” firm focused on accelerating growth for emerging startups. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in the fashion industry working with various clothing manufacturers, designing and developing private-label programs for major retailers.
WHY DEBBIE WAS INTERVIEWED
I met Debbie at the Dealmaker Media’s Grow Future of Business Conference which brings together startups from all over Canada and the West Coast. 2013 was about the future of innovation, growth and entrepreneurship. Debbie was curating an environment that brought together technology pioneers, founders, executives, influencers and investors who are passionate about identifying problems worth solving. I’d approached Debbie to attend as media and wrote a blogpost: GROW – The Future of Business: The Intersection of Design and Entrepreneurial Thinking. As I knew her from GROW I asked if I could interview her for the project as knew she would be a good fit. Debbie is random, funny, passionate with a gung-ho attitude.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“Creativity is absolutely related to being a maverick because you have to be able to think differently and you have to see the world in a different way, because there’s a huge history about here’s how we’ve always done it. There’s the standard process. You’ve got to be able to look at things, how things have been done and try to re-invent new ways, by taking concepts and ideas from completely opposite areas and seeing how you can re-format and re-arrange and re-design for your particular situation. Being a maverick is about risk taking and being able to see around corners to see what other people don’t see. Innovation is the same, innovation is about being able to create things that people really didn’t know they wanted.“
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor and my dad.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Follow your instincts. Go with your instincts.”
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Jari Kuosma
Jari Kuosma
Founder Birdman International. Original developer of modern and commercial wingsuit and wing suit flying.
“Crazy is one who can see what others can’t.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“A maverick is someone who doesn’t take the answers from the status quo and from the normal society. In the face value of this person, he questions, he always asks why and is not maybe satisfied in the ways that things are always done. And then there’s a curiosity and there is a will to go where others haven’t necessarily gone, which is really difficult and can be a kind of self-sacrificing thing.”
JARI’S BIO
Jari Kuosma is the original developer of modern and commercial wingsuits and wingsuit flying. He is a professional skydiver, entrepreneur and designer and Founder of BIRDMAN International. Previously he was Project Manager at TeliaSonera which brings the world closer by providing leading communication services to millions of customers every day in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Eurasia and Spain.
WHY JARI WAS INTERVIEWED
My friend Mel Cheng was International Product Lead at RedBull sent me a link about base jumping off Mount Kilimanjaro, which I had just climbed. It got me thinking about who came up with the idea and suit. Research led me to Jari who felt a strong connection for mavericks as he himself had always ‘swam against the tide.’ He loved the idea I was working on and was very happy to be interviewed. Jari is fun, honest, passionate and creative. He supports me in my adventure and sends me links like Meet the Rebels Who Bend the Rules and Play to Win as it correlated to this project.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“It’s a huge deal, because without being a free thinker how can you be creative, if you only repeat what others are doing? So creativity is everything that goes outside of it.”
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Leonardo Da Vinci the polymath scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Richard Branson the English businessman and investor, Steve Jobs the American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. And Plato philosopher and writer.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
” Think for yourself. Don’t take anybody else’s face value. Just always dig deep and don’t worry about not being right always, because we’re wrong all our life and then the next day you find something new, so you can throw everything that you learned away and because you can replace the belief system with the new. So never be afraid about being wrong about something, of course you shouldn’t do something that harms other people.”
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Noam Kostucki
Noam Kostucki
“Crazy is living the routine, not taking risks and trying to be what others want. Sane is seeking change, taking risks and doing what you want because it’s the surest way not to regret living.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“My understanding from the history of the word, which I thought was fascinating, which is the story of Samuel Maverick and the cows. He didn’t brand the cows as he didn’t want to have them branded, and because he thought it was inhumane and as a result everyone said, ‘you’re crazy, this is ridiculous, people are going to steal your cows, but as a result all the cows that were unbranded were assumed to be his. And so trying not to have a brand made him have a brand….People who do what they believe is true and correct and they do what they I guess the word for that is truthiness. You know what Stephen Colbert said about truthiness, he invented the word, which is when your guts tell you that you’re right despite all the facts and evidence…. every else around says ‘no we need to go left’ and there’s this one guy who says, ‘well actually I think right would be better’ despite the fact that everyone says ‘you’re wrong.’ I guess that the maverick believes so much in his or her beliefs so strongly, that they eventually go against the current for that. That’s what I think a maverick is, one person who sees, who believes that going against the current might be the better idea then who actually takes action and does it. Finds a way to make it happen because it’s very easy for people to say we need to go in the other direction. I think a maverick actually figures out the steps and tries to unwork the ‘hack the machine’ and figure out where it is that the piece can be taken out and replaced with the new direction and new ideas.”
NOAM’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Noam-Kostucki.jpg)
Noam Kostucki is Founder of Redefine Us that advises senior leaders across a range of charitable, public and private sector industries on strategy and business development through training and coaching. Prior to this Noam was the Founder of Seededucation. Noam believes that everything can be elevated into an art form. He coaches people who create masterpieces and has engaged with over 25,000 people from 40 nationalities. One of his clients raised $500k in 8 weeks
One of Noam’s three books is required reading at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He has spoken at over 80 international conferences for institutions like Harvard University . His work has been selected to feature in the Coaching Movie.
WHY NOAM WAS INTERVIEWED
Noam and I connected via Linked In and it soon became apparent he thinks differently. Noam is comfortable with who he is, listens to his own truthiness, rationalises his life experiences and is a bit wacky.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so question not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
Early interview so question not asked.
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Look into what you’re most scared of and run in that direction. Take the time to go deep into how you feel and who you are. Make space for your creations and take bold actions. Learn how non-mavericks operate, and how non-maverick systems work. Practice both, being uniquely yourself and how to fit in society.”
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David Katz
David Katz
Founder and CEO at The Plastic Bank
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“You know, human. Anyone that I know that has done extraordinary things are ordinary people.”
DAVID’S BIO
David’s newest global venture is The Plastic Bank, the worlds only organization to monetize plastic waste. The Plastic Bank provides incentive to the worlds disadvantaged to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency. The Plastic Bank solves poverty and reduces plastic waste by revealing the value in Ocean Bound Plastic waste. David was recently named one of the world’s most compassionate entrepreneurs by Salt magazine. He is also Founder and Thought Leader at The Core Values Institute, a consulting and Global thought leadership platform. He has also been the President of the Vancouver Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation.
WHY DAVID WAS INTERVIEWED
David was introduced to me by Susanne Biro, who knew him and felt he might be a good fit. When I researched David and further explored the concept of The Plastic Bank, and listened to him tell his story I just knew I had to include him. David sees life through the lens of abundance, is a serial embarker, passionate and funny.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
“I think that they are a by-product of being focused on abundance, because when we focus on being abundant it’s not what you believe, but what you believe is what you see. And so when you believe in success and your eyes are open to that, creativity and innovation comes, it’s just there anyhow.”
ADVICE FOR OTHER MAVERICKS
“Stop thinking about society, about fashion. They have to embrace their maverickness and live with intention in it.”
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Rickie Josen
Rickie Josen
“Crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
THINK DIFFERENT. THINK MAVERICK.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A MAVERICK?
“Somebody who pushes the barrier, breaks a few rules, does something different and is very capable of change and changing things and leadership in different ways.”
RICKIE’S BIO
![](http://maverickwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Rickie-Josen-logo.jpg)
Rickie Josen is Founder of Rickie Writes, she is a a Facilitator Business Consultant and Trainer supporting people into business or into work who operates with the fun/fun balance – fitting business around the life (rather than the other way round), and is on a mission to encourage everyone to do the same! She is also Business Skills Trainer for Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people and Learning Manager for The School for Social Entrepreneurs. She is also Founder and CoHost for Jelly, a co-working space, Co-Organiser of LikeMind and Founder of Birmingham Favorites.
WHY RICKIE WAS INTERVIEWED
I had interviewed Tim Wilson who said Rickie was the maverick who inspired him. Rickie is driven, passionate and an out there coffee drinker.
HOW ARE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION RELATED TO BEING A MAVERICK?
Early interview so question not asked.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S A MAVERICK THAT INSPIRES YOU?
“Richard Branson the English businessman and investor. Dale Carnegie the writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills, and her parents.”
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