Disrupt Everything—and Win

Preface
Chapter 1

•••

Preface

This book tells the story of a force that is everywhere.

Disruption.

Disruption is a force of change.

Some of us, maybe most of us, stubbornly resist change, even when it’s clearly in our best interests. But resisting change can leave us left out, left behind, and left feeling lost, cheated, and angry.

It shouldn’t be that way. And if we’re open to effecting change, it doesn’t have to be that way.

It’s like turning the page in a new book. Like this one. Inside this book is a story — the reader’s story. It will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It will contain some drama. The story will have a powerful, engaging beginning, signifying a commitment to a certain path in life. It will have a compelling middle, with some surprises and some adjustments. And it should have a satisfying ending, leaving you with the knowledge that you’re prepared for future disruptions.

And there will be future disruptions.

In 2022, I visited Nashville several times while Dolly Parton and I were cowriting a novel, Run, Rose, Run. That February, I visited my old graduate school, Vanderbilt University, to give a guest lecture titled “The Power of Disruptions” to business students in Professor Patrick Leddin’s leadership class.

I began by challenging (disrupting) the students in an unusual way. I asked them if they were living a good life. Or had they been getting on one treadmill after another for most of their lives? Was that treadmill routine satisfying for them? Basically, were they happy? I told the students how several significant disruptions had led to my becoming CEO of the country’s leading advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson. And how I had then disrupted my life in a major way by changing careers and eventually becoming the bestselling writer in the world.

Finally, I confessed to them that, because of disruptions, I’d been in love with two wonderful women — and had married one of them. I reassured the students that I wanted all of them to lead good, satisfying lives and that managing disruptions would be important — more important than they could imagine.

This book came about because of that disruptive lecture.

Today, whenever I give a speech — whether to a corporate group, to college students, or to people at a book event — I ask the audience members whether they are living good lives. And now I’ll ask you the same question: Are you living a good life? Are you passionate about your job? About your employer? About your future? How is your family life? How are your relationships with friends and coworkers? Are you able to balance your work life with your personal life?

I love my job. That’s because I don’t work for a living; I play for a living. The reason for this — 100 percent — has to do with managing disruption.

Equally important, or maybe even more important, has been the effect of disruptions on my home life. I love my wife. I sometimes joke that if Sue ever leaves me, I’m going with her. I love our son, Jack. The three of us have always discussed and negotiated significant changes — disruptions — in our lives.

Here’s a promise: Disrupt Everything will help you deal with the most powerful and misunderstood force in this fast‑changing world — disruption.

Disruption can be scary, but it can also be an agent for positive change. Virtually every company, and virtually every employee from top to bottom, needs to be open to disruption and play a part in positive change. That’s right: Everybody has a part to play.

My successes, as well as my weathering of bad luck and personal tragedy, have arisen from my ability to understand and make use of disruption in positive ways. I became the CEO of J. Walter Thompson North America at thirty‑six. I got there by disrupting the norm, which spurred growth and much higher profits for the firm.

When I was twenty‑four, I was living out of a tiny room in a low‑rent hotel on West 51st Street in New York City. The wallpaper in the room had thousands of pentagons on it, and some former occupant had drawn an X through every single pentagon. I needed to get out of there, fast.

But how? Back then, I didn’t know I needed a disruption, but I did need one. Badly.

To secure an entry‑level job as an advertising copywriter, you were required to present a portfolio of clever ads. I wanted to work at J. Walter Thompson because Thompson was the biggest and most powerful ad agency, but I had never taken an advertising or marketing course.

What I did was disrupt the hiring process. I hand‑delivered a portfolio of ads to Thompson’s New York office. This wasn’t a disruption; it was the status quo. But the next week, I delivered a second portfolio. And the third week, I delivered a third portfolio. I was definitely disrupting the normal process at JWT.

The company hired me in the fourth week.

Years later, when I was promoted to head of the New York office at JWT, the product wasn’t good. We needed better personnel. It was time for another disruption. We ran an ad in the New York Times. The headline was straightforward: “Write If You Want Work.” There were six questions, six problems to solve. I promised to hire writers based on the test and a single interview.

Here is one of the problems applicants had to solve: “The ingredients listed on the tin of baked beans reads: “Beans, Water, Tomatoes, Sugar, Salt, Modified Starch, Vinegar, Spices. Make it sound mouthwatering.”

Over the course of the following years, we hired over forty writers based on that single very disruptive ad.

During this time at Thompson, I was writing novels on the side. Writing was my real passion, my dream job. Next came the biggest disruption of my life. It happened on the New Jersey Turnpike, of all places. One beautiful summer Sunday, I had to leave my house and go back to work in New York City. As I headed north, traffic on the turnpike was bumper‑to‑bumper. But on the other side, the southbound side, there were almost no cars.

Every ten or fifteen seconds, I would hear this sound:

Whoosh. Whoosh.

That was the sound of a car passing in the opposite direction, and that sound — whoosh— led me to the next disruption. A really big one. I realized that my mission was to get on the other side of the highway. My whole life was going in the wrong direction.

I didn’t need to be in bumper‑to‑bumper traffic heading to a job I no longer really cared about. I needed to be on the other side of the road. I needed to be writing novels full‑time. But to do that, I had to walk away from a powerful, high‑paying job.

So I quit my steady job. It wasn’t an easy decision. My writing partner on Disrupt Everything, Patrick Leddin, also took a leap of faith when he left his prestigious role as a professor at Vanderbilt University to speak to audiences around the world about disruption.

These are examples of big disruptions — the kind you’ll learn to make when they’re needed.

Disrupt Everything will help you harness the power of small and big disruptions and teach you why sometimes, choosing not to disrupt is equally important.

When I started writing full‑time, there was an unspoken rule in the publishing industry that most authors should only publish one book a year. That rule didn’t make sense to me, so I started writing two, then three, then more than half a dozen books a year. At first, my publisher, Little, Brown, resisted — but then the people there saw that disruption working like nothing they had ever seen before.

Next I started collaborating with cowriters. Another big disruption. Then I took up cowriting with famous people and groups — President Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, Viola Davis, the Albert Einstein estate, and the Michael Crichton estate. More successful disruptions followed.

Advertising books on television — a first for my publisher. Writing in many different genres — suspense, love stories, kids’ books, graphic novels, narrative nonfiction, memoir. I created BookShots — novellas that can be read in around the time it takes to watch a movie.

As I write these pages, I’m the bestselling writer in the world.

At least that’s what my publisher tells me.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that unfortunately, we all have to deal with disruptions in life that involve setbacks and personal tragedies — the kind of disruptions capable of sinking any of us without a trace.

In fact, as I write, our world has never felt more chaotic than right now.

But we can be better prepared. For economic disruptions like the ones in 2008 and 2020. For worldwide disruptions like COVID. Even for personal medical emergencies that can break our hearts.

When I was in my thirties, I was in love with a very special woman named Jane Hall Blanchard. Suddenly, out of nowhere, we found out that Jane had an inoperable brain tumor. But we never let the fact that she was dying control us. Jane lived each day as well and as bravely as she could. Through her illness, I learned to deal with death — that cruel, unforgiving, inevitable disrupter.

And you know what? Unpredictable disruptions are going to keep coming at us like speeding meteors. They always do.

The purpose of Disrupt Everything is to make disruption a positive force, helping you change your life for the better.

Our mission is to help ordinary people — people like you, like Patrick, and like me — deal effectively with unexpected disruptions. We want to help people lead better lives by managing — and even profiting from — disruption rather than letting disruption manage us.

Where do you want to go?

In business, and in life, there really isn’t a ceiling. The best way to demonstrate that is to take some chances. Enthusiasm and hunger are trademarks of people who succeed. Those are familiar qualities, right? What you’re doing is not easy, but you’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way. Now is the time to start practicing them. And I mean really practice. When you practice, you perform a task repeatedly until you get better and better at it. Practice is another way of making change — disrupting your daily reality to produce a better result.

So how do you get there?

My own daily goal is to get back to doing what I want to do. Nowadays, that’s less about being the number one novelist than it is about having a balanced life. If I were to create a blueprint, or a mission statement, it might look something like this:

There’s a story for everybody.
Don’t get in the way of the story.
Tap into something in the psyche.
Get interested in the people in the middle.
Provide cathartic emotional experiences.

Now you try it.

Say you’re an employee moving up the ranks in the company where you work. Say you have a talent for logistics. Your mission statement might look something like this:

Streamline the process.
Figure out what’s not working and why.
Figure out what is working — and amplify the company’s strengths through your actions.

Or say there’s a product that’s been lighting up your imagination. You’ve created it and become an entrepreneur. You’ve founded a company and a brand to market that product.

At its simplest, a brand is just a symbol of the trust established between a group of people and what you’re offering them — just trust. If you pick up product X, you won’t be able to stop using it. That’s it: Go ahead and make your company indispensable.

Make your product the one that stands out.
Take the mystery out of the business.
Reach more people — and different kinds of people — by listening to their feedback.

Here’s a mission statement for us all, no matter what our professional roles are.

Get your business life in sync with your personal life.
Your loved ones want the best for you.
Give them your best.

The heart and mind can help you to get serious about a job, about changing careers, about starting a car wash, about following a leader’s vision at work, about improving someone else’s vision through your own ideas. It’s the heart and mind working together that help you select a path moving forward and commit to it. That’s definitely what happened to me as a writer. I also think it’s what happened to Patrick when he saw an opportunity.

Large or small, all companies and institutions have mission statements. For these to be best put into practice, every employee needs to buy in — but these same employees also need to be willing to change how they do their jobs in small and large ways. They need to be able to disrupt. Employees who want to advance, at any level, have to be seen as positive disrupters.

Entrepreneurs — anyone who wants to start their own businesses — absolutely have to understand how to make disruption work positively for them.

Disrupt Everything recognizes and supports the essential connection between the business life and the personal life of everyone, using positive disruption to improve lives.

That’s the bottom line: leading a better life.

So let’s start. It’s time for your first disruption. We’ll make this easy, even fun, and it will help you live a better life.

— James Patterson

•••

Chapter 1

The Fire Inside You

Identifying your intentions is a deeply personal endeavor. Activating them is a courageous one.

Megan Piphus can’t believe the email that’s just popped up in her inbox. It’s from Matt Vogel, a producer for the Emmy Award–winning Sesame Street, one of the world’s longest-running TV programs, and a principal Sesame Street Muppet performer. He’s known for playing Big Bird, the Count, and, since 2017, the Disney Muppet Kermit the Frog. The friends and neighbors on Manhattan’s fictional Sesame Street have enter- tained and educated millions of children over the course of more than fifty years.

Megan grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, as one of those children. She celebrated her third birthday with a Sesame Street–themed party. Zoe was her favorite Muppet, though Megan was also later intrigued by Abby Cadabby.

Megan took piano lessons and dance lessons. Her father, a pastor, encouraged her to sing in the church choir. “In small circles, I had a hard time opening up and overcoming shyness,” Megan says. “But onstage, I felt like I had strength.”

Her appetite for performing was further ignited at ten years old, when she saw a female ventriloquist captivating an audience. “As soon as I realized that puppetry was an art form that you could learn,” Megan says, “I wanted to be the person that was onstage or behind the curtain working the puppet and doing ventriloquism.”

Megan’s mom is an educator and a speech pathologist. When Megan told her about the new skill she wanted to learn, her mom called several local library branches to ask: “Do you have tapes on how to do ventriloquism?”

A vocal technique that dates back to ancient Greece, ventriloquism involves the illusion of a performer “throwing her voice,” making sound seem to come from a different source, like a puppet. It often requires not only talking, but singing and acting.

Megan watched those videos “back and forth” and, using the puppet her mom bought for her, spent hours practicing her new techniques. She first put on shows for her family, then, eventually, for her classmates at school, where her teachers gave her praise and encouragement.

By sixth grade, she was entertaining the entire student body, and as a teenager, Megan was traveling the nation, performing at schools and churches. As her experience grew, so did her successes, leading to an appearance on The Tonight Show. Another appearance, on America’s Got Talent, earned her Yes votes from all four judges.

“I don’t think people realize just how hard that is,” Howard Stern said of Megan’s performance during that broadcast. “You have an incredible singing voice, [it] is remarkable that you can do it, not move your lips, operate these puppets, make them come to life.”

“Stunning,” added Howie Mandel. “You are amazingly talented. You have an amazing singing voice, a range from pop to opera, and I, just now, have become a fan of ventriloquism.”

Fast-forward to the day Megan gets that email from Matt Vogel, the Sesame Street producer. During the show’s COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, Matt and his team have been going through submissions and have come across Megan’s long-ago audition package. Are you still interested in joining the Sesame Street cast?

Megan’s heart races as she reads the words. Is this real? She’s working full-time in real estate, but joining the Sesame Street cast has been a lifelong dream.

Despite the challenges of auditioning and training virtually during the pandemic while pregnant with her second child, Megan pounces on the opportunity.

“It was a hard balance having a full-time job in real estate and also starting a career at Sesame Street. I have a family and two young children,” she says. “I just needed to take a leap of faith to move into the television industry and puppetry full-time.”

All signs point to it being the right decision. “Within a couple of weeks of leaving my career in real estate, the news broke about me being the first Black woman puppeteer on Sesame Street.”

Megan also makes history when she debuts Gabrielle, a Black Muppet vibrantly costumed in an orange cardigan, patterned skirt, hot-pink shoes, and matching hair ties in her Afro puffs. Gabrielle lives on Sesame Street, is six and three-quarters years old, and enjoys singing, dancing, and cooking. She even teaches her good friends Elmo and Abby Cadabby about racism.

“I realized in that moment that I had made history in a show that had already been around for over fifty years,” says Megan. “We’re able to tackle very heavy topics, and I know I’m just training and leading the next generation to be kinder and smarter and stronger. And I get to teach my own children through Sesame Street. I know I’m creating content that they’re going to watch at home.”

And she’s excited about the ripple effects. “I realized that it would open doors for other Black women, women of  color,  little  boys  of  color,  entering  the entertainment space to really see that they can be absolutely anything — no matter how niche or unique.”

In 2023, Sesame Workshop partners with toy makers to release Gabrielle plushies, including one that talks and sings the Muppet’s signature song, “I Love My Hair.” Megan posts an unboxing video on Insta- gram, captioned “My first time hearing my voice on the Gabrielle doll .”

Visibly moved, she hugs the doll with tears in her eyes and declares, “Oh man, I wish I had this as a little girl.” Under her video she writes, “Go out and get the Gabrielle plush doll for your kids! This girl is making a difference. This is not an ad; I’m not getting anything from this beyond being a light for self-positivity and love.”

Megan’s achievements stem from igniting the Fire Inside.

Just like Megan, you have a fire inside. It overlaps with your Talent, Inner Voice, and Passion.

Talent involves special ability — both what you’re good at and also what you’re truly great at.

Everyone has a distinct talent that sets them apart from the crowd. It could be an innate skill: creative flair, spatial relations, nurturing friends and family. It could be a learned expertise: strategic planning, entrepreneurship, auto repair, architectural design.

Everyone also has an inner voice, also known as a Conscience.The messages it broadcasts to your brain through feelings and instinct are informed by a powerful combination of experience, knowledge, and belief. Tuning in to your conscience motivates you to address the world’s unmet needs in ways that inherently feel right to you.

Passion is the spark that lights the fire inside, igniting your enthusiasm and commitment.

Passion stirs up excitement that goes far beyond the prospect of making money. It’s what drives you to dive into projects or activities you genuinely enjoy, the kind of stuff you’d happily do even if you weren’t getting paid. There’s so much value in finding your own voice. Doing work you are passionate about fulfills you with a priceless sense of personal satisfaction.

Megan possesses the ability to be a world-class entertainer (talent); she recognizes and responds to the world’s

need for joy and the teaching of valuable lessons (inner voice); and she experiences the exhilaration of doing something she loves (passion).

Build Your Fire on a Strong Foundation

Whether out of fear, misunderstanding, or lack of motivation, far too many people aren’t clear on who they are and what they want to be. Those who shy away from this deeply personal endeavor are left to draw on others’ energy or thoughtlessly go with the flow established by those around them.

Discovering the fire inside is only the beginning. The harder part is living in alignment — especially in the face of life’s many disruptions. Yet when handled wisely, disruptions can become fuel to ignite the fire. The fire inside burns with your Purpose.

It begins with the tough task of articulation. Identifying your intentions out loud or in writing is a deeply personal endeavor. Activating them is a courageous one.

Ask yourself: What does living with integrity mean to you? How do you demonstrate it in your daily actions? Here’s the hard truth — living a life that doesn’t align with your values smothers the fire inside you, quenching your ability to thrive and express your true self.

When your fire is built on a strong foundation, its heat grounds you during challenging times, and its flames can elevate you to heights beyond your expectations. The fire inside you burns brightest when it’s built on values you’ve identified and defined and are willing to put into action. Honesty. Responsibility. Compassion. Respect. These are a few examples of the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide the decisions you make every hour of every day.

Keep reading, and you will learn how to burn that fuel.

Purpose Versus Mission

People often throw around the words purpose and mission interchangeably, but there’s a distinction between them that’s worth remembering.

Your purpose is your deepest, most core reason for existence. What gives your life meaning? Why do you do what you do? Your purpose is broad and timeless, even when your job or other life circumstances change. Your mission is a more concrete expression of how you are living out your purpose. It defines what you’re trying to achieve, how you want to contribute to the world, and what priorities are guiding your actions, providing clear direction when you get out of bed each morning. And it may change over time as you accomplish certain goals and set new objectives.

“I want young children seeing themselves represented on television to be filled with confidence and to know they are special,” Megan says. Her purpose is entertaining people — that will never change. But her mission evolves as her circumstances evolve, through- out her career and her personal life.

“On my vision board years ago, I pinned Sesame Street,” Megan says. “And now I’m on the cast.” She doesn’t stop there, adding images of Emmy Awards to the vision board —and in 2021, wins two. “All of that manifestation has been a result of me dreaming and believing that I’m capable of the biggest dreams coming true.”

Defining Disruption

DisruptcEverything. Those are powerful words.

The research behind them is substantial.

Because words arepowerful, conversations form the basis of DisruptEverything— detailed conversations with people who’ve chosen to make disruptions the basis for meaningful and lasting change in their lives.

Connecting with disrupters such as Megan led to comprehensive one-on-one interviews with hundreds of people, from household names to unsung heroes, each of whom has forged a distinctly disruptive professional or personal path.

Countless hours exploring how thousands of people follow their dreams led to the clear conclusion that the quest for the good life extends beyond individual pursuits.

Relationships aren’t simply a means to an end; they are the richest part of the journey.

Defining Positive Disruption

One thing that consistently stands out as the greatest challenge, and greatest opportunity, when it comes to “living a good life” is a person’s willingness to disrupt everything — and win. In other words, when you choose to be a Positive Disrupter, you become someone who fosters dynamic teams, transforms organizations, revitalizes industries, builds meaningful relationships, and breathes life and love into family.

Think about how Megan’s fire inside created a better life not only for herself but also for millions of Sesame Street viewers. Becoming a positive disrupter can start a ripple effect in countless unpredictable directions.

Your definition of “winning” is as unique as you are. What does living a good life mean to you?

Think about that for a moment.

Does it mean you are eager to get out of bed every morning?

Does it mean you enjoy a stable income that lets you support the people you love?

Does it mean you’re part of a team that’s making a meaningful impact on the world?

Does it mean you have reached the life goals you dreamed of when you were younger?

Answering these questions means unlocking the secret of a powerful paradox: the very disruptions that threaten to derail you from the path to a good life are the same ones that can propel you closer to it. Getting clear on your fire inside is the essential first step toward creating that good life.

Positive Disrupter Move: Claim the Day

Before your feet hit the floor, pause. One breath. One thought.

Why am I here today? Move with purpose, not autopilot.

Still uncertain about your purpose and values? To reflect on your personal mission or that of your team, turn to “Part VII: Your Positive Disrupter Toolkit” and check out “Tool 1: Identify the Fire Inside You” and “Tool 2: Craft Your Mission Statement.”