Rules are meant to be broken, some say. All great creators, inventors, and artists have broken rules. The defied existing paradigms, norms and broke the stated and unstated rules of the game in their respective fields. They unshackled themselves from the constraints not only of the society around them, but also of their own minds.

In 1956, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a public bus to a white passenger. The prevailing Alabama law required her to do so. She was arrested, sparking off a 381 day boycott of the Montgomery public system and ulitmately leading to a ban on segregation in public transport. She broke the rules.

Mahatma Gandhi broke the British-imposed salt tax by walking 400 km in Dandi in 1930, for which he was imprisoned for a year without trial. He was arrested several times in the course of the freedom struggle. He broke the rules.

Jesus Christ broke the rules time and again. He did it to heal a leper. He did it to save a woman who had sinned. Ultimately he was crucified.

Pablo Picasso famously said “Learn the rules like a pro, so that you can break them like an artist." Picasso broke away from the tradition of realistic paintings and created his own version of art, now called Cubism. He sparked off the era of modern art.

Linus Torvalds broke the rules when he helped create Linux, an open source operating system. The entire source code of the Linux is available for anyone to use and modify, and is available free of cost. Today the ‘Open Source Movement’ has made quality software freely available to millions of users worldwide.

Charlie XCX in her video “Break the Rules" reflects the voice of millions of youth around the world when she sings… “I don’t want to go to school, I just wanna break the rules!". The video on Youtube has 59million views!

Sure, my dear young friends, go ahead and break the rules. But before you do, remember to keep these two things in mind:

1. Is it worth it? Am I doing it because I have a better idea, or am I doing it just to attract some attention? Is it something I truly feel for and believe in? If it works, will it make a big difference?

2. Am I ready to face the consequences? Mahatma Gandhi went to jail, Christ was crucified, Picasso work was heavily criticised by the art community. Breaking the rule will have consequences, and I should be aware of and ready for them before I take any action.

If your answer to both the questions is yes, go ahead… may you be a history maker!

Until then, I will focus on getter better and better at what I do. One day, I will re-write the rules!

With loads of Love & Gratitude

adi.

This is from the original article we published on http://dancingwithtigers.com/go-break-the-rules/