Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve heard that someone is doing something in a way that just isn’t the norm? When you hear about how they’re doing it, it just can’t be right, they couldn’t possibly succeed. Conventions are conventions because they work, for most people, but in just about every case, to be truly revolutionary you have to break the mold.

There’s something about our society that makes us as a whole want to reject those innovators, those who choose to do things differently until we see that their method is better with our own eyes. My challenge to you isn’t to change the world. I already asked you to do that a few days ago, but instead that when you do find out that someone’s doing something differently to instead of questioning why they are choosing to be a misfit and trying to poke holes in what they’re doing and to proclaim it as wrong, to observe and learn from their decision to be different. Ask them why they chose their method, how it’s better than the way that everyone else is doing it, not to criticize, but to learn.

They may get the same end result even though it looks harder than the way you’d approach it and in some cases their result is better than anything you could come up with on your best day. There are countless examples of people who chose to do something differently than others and went on to achieve something truly great, but inspired by Silagh’s post about her experiences due to her husband’s time at House of Guitars I’d like to share with you someone who was a shining example of someone who not only did it differently, but was a master at his craft.

Jeff Healey seemed to have the deck stacked against him. As an infant he had eye cancer, causing him to lose his sight at eight months old. He went on to learn to play the guitar in a very unconventional way, but certainly had more talent than most of what you’ll hear on the radio today. Here’s The Jeff Healey Band’s cover of Roadhouse Blues. While you enjoy the music, watch him play and you’ll see what I mean about him doing it differently.