Act as if everything you know about the industry is wrong.
This one is related to Rule #1. If you want to change the world you can’t start by assuming you are going to work in the current world. The way work is done today needs to change. The way data is used is all wrong. Public datasets don’t even exist yet for much of the information that brokers and analysts commonly need.
On top of this, innovation is the act of change. If you assume status quo, innovation will be hampered. It’s almost going to take a retreat into the wilderness for someone to get the right perspective. The team at 42Floors.com has achieved some of this because they didn’t come from the industry. They were simply trying to solve a problem that they and many of their entrepreneurial brethren regularly face.
But it’s not because we’re in the CRE industry specifically that this is true. It’s true of any industry changing innovation. Twitter went completely against the grain by limiting the number of characters they allow!