Prompt: Do people accomplish more when they are allowed to do things in their own way?
People accomplish more when they are free to do things in their own way. There are often many different paths one can take to achieve success. Several examples from history clearly demonstrate that people accomplish more without restrictions or constraints on how they must work.
In 2002, Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, built a playoff-caliber team through his own unconventional methods. The owner of the Athletics, Stephen Schott, gave Beane the freedom to do what he wanted and did not meddle with the team. At the time, baseball players were predominantly judged based on human observation. Qualities such as a good body or a good faced were favored by the scouts who ranked players. Beane ignored conventional wisdom and used statistical analysis to find players to sign to his team. The rag-tag Oakland Athletics won 103 games and went on to the playoffs. Therefore, Beane’s actions prove that people accomplish more when given the freedom to do things their way. Had Beane been forced to sign more expensive and overrated players, he wouldn’t have been as successful.
Nicholas Copernicus also did not listen to others and went about things in his own way, leading to a discovery that would change the field of astronomy forever. Copernicus’s peers believed in the geocentric model, the theory that all other planets and stars revolved around the Earth. Copernicus chose to conduct research in his own way. By observing the change in position of stars in the night sky, he discovered that the planets, including Earth, revolved around the sun. His new ideea became known as the heliocentric model. Thus, Copernicus’s unique research of the stars revealed a truth that had been prior disregarded.
Steve Jobs developed the personal computer his own unique way, giving rise to Apple and the proliferation of the computer in homes and schools. Computers then were not as small or user-friendly as they are now. Jobs’s focus was to make the computer more accessible to normal people. He shrunk down the computer to a manageable size and made it easier for people to interact with their computer. Jobs created a visual environment that allowed users to intuitively accomplish tasks on their computer such as using a calculator or typing a letter. Steve Jobs’s revolutionary design of the personal computer is evidence that people can accomplish great things when allowed freedom to work their own way. His unique vision and creativity transformed the computer into the helpful machine it is today.
After a careful analysis of Beane, Copernicus, and Steve Jobs, one can see that the freedom to do things in one’s own way does indeed lead to success and greater accomplishment. Restrictions on how a person must go about doing something discourages new ideas and perspectives. Sometimes it is the one unique voice in a sea of conformity that makes the most impact.