Success Tip: Stop Listening to Conventional Wisdom

Do you ever feel like you are fighting an uphill battle? Like the world is not set up to allow you to achieve your dreams? Take heart, because as it turns out, even when conventional wisdom is against you, you can still succeed…

Growing up, I had a book titled, Bet You Can’t! It was a short book filled with sciencey type challenges that were impossible; they could not be done.

For example, one chapter was, “bet you can’t boil ice water!” Fair enough, since “ice water” was defined as water having ice in it, and since water, in theory, won’t go up in temperature until the ice is melted, it can’t reach the boiling point while ice exists. This would have been a great book to win beers off of your friends, if of course you drank beer in the 3rd grade. I didn’t, but I don’t know what the heck kids are up to these days.

One of the challenges was, “bet you can’t fold a piece of paper in half 7 times!” The logic being that each fold doubles the thickness of the paper, and that by the time you get to the 7th fold, it would be too short and too thick to fold.

My book said it, I heard others say it, and this seemed to be one of those “conventional bits of wisdom” that everyone accepted. Until 2001, that is…

I just came across a story about a high school girl, Britney Gallivan, who not only folded a piece of paper 7 times, she actually went and folded it 12 times! (why a story from 2001 was on the front page of Digg, I have no idea, but I’m glad it was…). You can read it here:

Folding Paper on ABC Science

Britney’s math teacher offered extra credit to anyone who could fold a sheet of paper 12 times. Seemed like a safe bet, since it was an impossible problem.

Britney, however, decided it wasn’t impossible. She then went and figured out the math behind the paper folding. I have to admit, I made it through Calc IV in college and did two years of mechanical engineering, and I can’t make heads or tails of the equation she used on the website. And she was in high school. I have probably felt dumber before in my life, but not by much… Using the equations, Britney determined it was possible if she had a piece of paper 1.2 km long.

So she got a 1.2 km long roll of toilet paper for $85 (imagine explaining that to a sales rep. “Um, yeah, I need 1.2 km worth of toilet paper. Why? Uh…I am planning on eating nothing but beans and habeneros for the next month…”), got a mall to let her unroll her paper down it’s length and then spend 7 hours folding it. And she did it, disproving the “conventional wisdom” about paper folding.

She then went on to attend the University of Berkley, had her story mentioned on Mythbusters and Numb3rs, and now works as the world’s largest Origmai scupltorist (ok, I made that last part up).

I spend enough time complaining about the stupidity I see in the world that I find it exciting and inspirational to see a high school student not be dissuaded by conventional wisdom and go out and tackle and solve a seemingly impossible problem. Too cool.

Here are three things we can all learn from Britney’s example:

Don’t Blindly Accept “Conventional Wisdom”

If you ever set out to do anything cool, or great, or innovative, people will come out of the woodwork like scarab beetles swarming Imhotep to point out to you how it won’t work. They’ll site “conventional wisdom.” They’ll reference “common sense.” And they’ll be quick to point out anecdotal evidence about “my sister’s husband’s cousin’s roommate’s accountant’s dogwalker tried the same thing and failed. Don’t do it.”

Getting advice and thinking through your idea is smart, but don’t be dissauded by the naysayers. If you believe in your idea, can find a way to mimimize the risk, and have enough passion to see it through, then heck, tell everyone else to screw off (even if only in your own head) and go forward. Most great things in the world came from people flying in the face of “conventional wisdom.”

Understand the Reasons for the Arguments Against

When I first read about this challenge, the problem was said to be the thickness of the folded paper. If I recall correctly, the book said, “…that would be like trying to fold a phone book – impossible!” Ok, sounded good to me.

Turns out, the problem had more to do with the ratio of the thickness to the width or length. The higher the ratio, the harder to fold. Based on the fact that she has a “pi” in her equations, I would say that as long as there was enough paper left to complete a half-circle (i.e. a fold) it could be done (I am just guessing here – trying to make myself look “math smart” so I get all those cushy “Smart Ass Mathematics” speaking gigs)

My assumption of the underlying cause (and most people’s assumptions I would hazzard, based on what I have seen) was wrong. As long as I held that to be true, I would never even consider tackling the problem because I couldn’t get around how thick the paper would be. Once you understand the real problem, you can create a real solution.

In the same way, we often make incorrect assumptions about the things that are preventing us from achieving our goals. Whether it’s a mistaken external assumption (blaming a bad economy when in fact your marketing stinks) or internal (thinking you are not good enough when in fact you are just marketing to the wrong crowd), you can waste a lot of time and effort if you don’t fully understand what’s going on.

Take some time to really think through what is holding you back. Be honest and fair with yourself. Once you identify your real roadblock, you can much more easily movee past it.

Try a New Approach

What’s interesting is that Britney actually solved this problem twice. First, she solved it by using gold leaf, which is so thin that she was able to fold it 12 times. This is significant because the common set up of the challenge is, “no matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.” Turns out the thickness does matter.

Then, when her math teacher told her it had to be paper and not gold leaf, she again took a different approach. Most people would fold the piece of paper in different directions to prevent it from getting too small to fast. That is, they would fold it in half, then rotate it 90 degrees, then fold in half again, and so on and so on.

Britney thought out of the box and ran the math for repeatedly folding it in a single direction, and realized that that approach had its advantages. By simply trying a new approach, she found a way to “do the impossible.”

When you start out on a goal you will probably find yourself going down a traditional, pre-set path. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it works. But if it stops working, don’t give up! Try a new approach. There is no “one way” to success; if the traditional route doesn’t work, forge your own path.

Not only will this help you achieve your goal despite the obstacles, but you may end up finding a better, faster way to get what you want!

I have a suggestion: the next time you feel overwhelmed, or like you can’t achieve something, or that you are on a crazy path, grab a piece of paper and see how many times you can fold it in half. When you get stuck on the fourth or fifth fold, remember that most people assume seven folds is impossible. If a high school student can figure out a way to fold a sheet 12 times, you can figure out a way to achieve your dreams.

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