Uncommon Sense.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about regular people like you who are willing to transform the world.

One day, a long time ago, a young Italian man named Cristoforo Colombo developed a crazy philosophy that the world was NOT flat, as was the conventional thinking, and he set out to prove it, saying, "For the execution of the voyage, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps." He didn't have any maps. His philosophy did not rely on mathematics, logic, or reason. Christopher Columbus, as we know him, believed in something and simply headed west. As he said, "Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World." Mr. Columbus discovered the Americas, proved his philosophy, and transformed the beliefs of one generation into the common sense of every generation who would follow.

How will you transform the common sense of the next generation? Don't have any support? Mr. Columbus didn't either. In fact, he had to discover support from another country before setting out to discover a new world.

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee developed a philosophy that people should be allowed to work together by combining their knowledge through a series of linked documents. Unfortunately, many of the documents lived on incompatible systems and were stored in completely different locations. Tim believed that "sites need to be able to interact in one single, universal space," and "data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves." In the summer of 1991, he set out to invent "http" to connect the servers, and "HTML" as a way to hyperlink documents regardless of their location or native system.

Soon after Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, I was still slicing deli meat in Wilmore, Kentucky. One day, I was hired, right there in the deli, by a horse racing tycoon to "help me put my horses on the Internet." The first website I worked on was a monochrome, text-only environment, providing direct-dial access to various horse racing data for his customers. In April of 1993, the first version of the Mosaic Browser was developed and released, allowing us to display our data through the first Web Browser. Mr. Berners-Lee had a unique philosophy and the initiative to create what became the common sense of every generation who would follow.

How will you transform the common sense of the next generation? Don't feel like you have the right charisma to change the world? Mr. Berners-Lee wasn't particularly charismatic either. In fact, he was a simple, quiet individual who simply believed in something and set out to prove it.

In 1999, I had been developing various website projects for one of my new clients, a little startup called Akamai Technologies. One special project we launched was called "The Magic of Math," which was designed to encourage young children to discover a renewed interest in math. Various dignitaries, politicians, and celebrities attended the launch of the program, including a keynote speech from my hero Tim Berners-Lee.

He really was my hero! My entire livelihood is based on what he had created, and I couldn't wait to meet him. Wow!

In my mind, Mr. Berners-Lee was an absolute genius; he must be 8 feet tall and he must be the most interesting man in the world! As a toddler, he probably taught others to walk. At the bookstore, people must crowd to see him read. Athletes probably seek his autograph. His passport wouldn't require a photo and he's never found a penny that wasn't heads up! Perhaps he would say, "I don't often change the world, but when I do, I call it the World Wide Web."

Tim Berners-Lee eventually walked onto the stage to deliver his speech, and I suddenly came to realize that he was just a regular guy. A regular guy like me and just a simple regular guy like you. A regular guy whose philosophy would transform the world and who was willing to change the common sense of every generation to follow.

Are you willing to transform the common sense of every generation that follows you?