Sometimes the Best Thing That Can Happen Is Nearly Getting Fired
How one man's glorious act of corporate insubordination gave us the most famous ad in history, changed Apple's future, and accidentally created our collective screen addiction.
Here’s a fun fact for your next dinner party: the greatest advertisement ever made was nearly murdered by committee before it could draw breath.
In 1983, Apple’s board sat in a room, watched what would become the most iconic 60 seconds in advertising history, and collectively lost their minds. Not in the good way.
“The worst commercial they had ever seen,” was the verdict. One director actually asked: “Can I get a motion to fire the ad agency?”
They ordered all the Super Bowl airtime sold immediately. The ad was dead. RIP. Thanks for playing.
Except.
Except Jay Chiat, the agency boss, did something rather wonderful. He quietly ignored his client’s direct instruction. Just... didn’t sell the slot. Pretended the phone lines were down, presumably. “Sorry, what’s that? You want me to do WHAT? Can’t hear you, terrible signal, going through a tunnel.”
Steve Wozniak, bless him, offered to pay for half the airtime out of his own pocket. And Steve Jobs? Well, Steve Jobs had written the brief and later added one extra market to the rerun schedule: Boca Raton, Florida.
IBM’s headquarters.
Because of course he bloody did.
The Ad That Changed Everything (And Nearly Didn’t Exist)
The commercial was called 1984. Directed by Ridley Scott, fresh off Blade Runner, clearly still in his dystopian bag. Shot in London with actual skinheads as extras who rioted so badly the security company had to bring in dogs. George Orwell’s estate sent a cease-and-desist claiming copyright infringement, which is a bit rich coming from an author whose entire point was about the danger of controlling information but never mind.
It aired nationally once. Once! On 22 January 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII.
Apple sales hit $150 million in the 100 days that followed.
And here’s the thing that should keep every marketing professional awake at night: if the board had got their way, none of this happens. No iconic ad. No Super Bowl advertising culture (Apple essentially invented that too, by the way). No proof that technology brands could make you feel something instead of just listing processor speeds.
Jay Chiat’s act of defiance didn’t just save a commercial. It arguably saved Apple. It made them the most unmissable computer brand on the planet. It made people want a Macintosh who’d never previously given computers a second thought.
One man. One decision to ignore the people paying his bills. One glorious gamble.
And now we’re all addicted to our phones. Thanks, Jay.
What If We All Ignored the Board?
Here’s what strikes me about this story: the board weren’t idiots. They were being perfectly rational. Apple was getting absolutely battered by IBM at the time. Slapping the industry giant in the face on the biggest stage in American television seemed, to put it mildly, unwise.
The board wanted certainty. They wanted safety. They wanted to not get publicly humiliated while haemorrhaging market share.
And they were completely, spectacularly wrong.
Because sometimes playing along and waiting for clarity is NOT the right answer. Sometimes the committee, with all its sensible concerns and reasonable objections, will kill the very thing that could save you.
I see this paralysis everywhere right now. Founders and leaders stuck in the waiting game. Asking themselves:
“Is now the right time?” “What if I say the wrong thing?” “What will people think?”
And underneath it all: “What if I’m rejected?”
To which I say: what if Jay Chiat had asked those questions?
Your Brain Is Lying to You (But It Means Well)
Here’s some neuroscience to make you feel better about your cowardice: your brain literally cannot tell the difference between a sabre-toothed tiger and your idea being shot down in a meeting. Same neural response. Same flood of cortisol. Same shutdown of your prefrontal cortex.
You cannot be creative when you’re terrified. This is why committees kill great work. It’s not malice, it’s mathematics. More people means more amygdalas means more regression to the mean.
Safe. Predictable. Forgettable.
So when you hold back your best ideas? When you wait for someone else to go first? When you produce work that’s fine but not exactly setting the world alight?
You’re not being weak. You’re being neurologically rational.
But here’s the problem: rationality won’t make you unmissable.
The Underdog’s Dilemma
I’ve always been a rebel. Ran hot with compliance when it came to creative licence, I’m sure. But here’s what I learned early: no one gets remembered for being beige.
When you’re the underdog, when your identity rather than your talent makes you the wildcard, mediocre is not going to cut it. You have to be impossible to ignore because being “okay” was never an option.
Every trajectory shift in my career started the same way. Leaving Google after a decade. Standing on a comedy stage dressed as Tinkerbell. Wearing sequins to boardrooms that had never seen a spark of joy.
Action before permission.
Not because I wasn’t scared. I was terrified. But waiting for permission meant waiting forever. And I’d rather be terrified and moving than comfortable and stuck.
The Fuck-It List: A Methodology for Magnificent Insubordination
The antidote to permission addiction is what I call the Fuck-It List. Or the F-List if you’re reading this at work.
Not a bucket list for “someday.” A methodology for doing the scary thing NOW.
1. Name the thing you’re avoiding.
Not the vague anxiety. The specific action. The post you haven’t published. The pitch you haven’t sent. The idea you’ve been sitting on.
2. Identify the permission you’re waiting for.
Whose approval are you seeking? Often you’ll realise you’re waiting for permission from people who will never give it, or who aren’t even paying attention.
3. Calculate the actual cost of action.
Not the imagined catastrophe. The real, likely consequence. Usually it’s: mild discomfort, possible rejection, temporary embarrassment. Survivable. Always survivable.
4. Take the smallest possible rebellious action.
Not the full launch. The tiny experiment that proves to your amygdala that acting without permission won’t actually kill you.
5. Repeat. Expand. Compound.
Each small rebellion rewires your brain. Builds the muscle of moving without permission.
Why This Matters Now More Than Ever
In 2026, life feels more like dystopian 1984 than ever before. Geopolitics is terrifying. AI anxiety is real. The news cycle is relentless.
And mediocrity has never been cheaper. AI has made “good enough” free. Anyone can produce passable content at scale. The flood of sameness is accelerating.
Which means the only defensible position is being unmissable.
Not through volume. Not through budget. Through actually standing for something and making people feel something real.
Certainty isn’t coming. The founders and leaders who thrive will be the ones who stop waiting for permission and start moving without it.
What If You Took a Bet on Yourself?
A personal brand, an unmissable one, is your best insurance policy for your future career. For founders, it has the potential to be one of your most effective marketing channels.
What if you defied the thing you know is wrong? What if you backed yourself? What if you stopped putting off to tomorrow what you could do today?
What if you embraced being unmissable to see what might come to you? The opportunities, the happiness, the success?
Just what if we all ignored the board and took a bet on ourselves?
I’m still defying the expected routes and safe paths. There are many days when I think I’m mad. But mostly, I feel alive. Terrified and knee-deep in learning and trusting. And no doubt once I master what I’m doing now and the waters are still, I’ll jump into another crazy adventure.
Or maybe by then it will be time to kick back with a few drinks at Club 55.
But not yet.
Your Fuck-It List Starts Now
You don’t need more information. You don’t need the perfect moment. You don’t need permission.
You need one small act of rebellion.
What’s the one thing you’ve been waiting to do? Put it on your F-List. And do it this week.
Not because you’re ready. Because you’ll never feel ready.
And the world doesn’t reward the people who wait.
It rewards the ones who move.
Because when mediocre is free and infinite, rebellion isn’t reckless.
It’s the only rational choice left.
The rules are being rewritten. This time, we hold the pen. 🪩
What’s on your F-List? Reply and tell me. I read every response.
Stuck? Invisible? Ready to stop being the best-kept secret in your industry and start being the one people can't stop talking about?
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