So Ugly There’s Only Upside

Blue cheese. Mushrooms. Burlwood. All things that were once considered ugly—until someone saw the upside. In fact, there’s upside everywhere. Especially in the places we’re least likely to look.

Burlwood is born from a tree’s deformity. It’s a twisted, knotted, irregular growth that once would’ve been discarded. Today? It's one of the most valuable and beautiful hardwoods used in high-end furniture and car interiors. I would know because my wife scoops up anything burlwood that she can at estate sales. It is that time of year, after all.

Mushrooms? Fungi growing in damp, dark places. Slimy, overlooked, superfluous. And yet they’re now center stage in plant-based cuisine, alternative medicine, and hailed for their brain-boosting, immunity-enhancing powers. I actually use Rise and Om products all the time for mood and attention. Placebo? Maybe. But I digress.

And blue cheese. Moldy. Noxious. But it’s also luxurious, complex, and deeply beloved by food lovers around the world. I bought two different varieties of it last week at the Lake Bluff Friday Farmers Market.

These are just the obvious examples.

If you came of age in the ’80s or ’90s, you saw this theme play out in full color on MTV and in zines and on the radio. Punk rock was loud, angry, and raw—a sonic middle finger to polished radio hits. And a middle finger to Middle America, elitism and the status quo. Its honesty and edge gave voice to a generation that felt ignored. Gen X found authenticity in the distortion.

Grunge followed suit in the ’90s, transforming pain and angst into anthems that still move us. And there was the oddball stuff like Primus and Ween that melded the discarded parts of myriad “weird” genres. Rage, discontent and othering transformed into community, artistry and expression. Upside, upside, upside.

“The Breakfast Club” showed us that the weirdo, the burnout, the nerd, and the jock weren’t so different after all—and that the labels we slap on people might be the very thing that hides their gifts. So ugly there’s only upside.

In the Millennial era, we saw the rise of the underdog start-up. Think: a couple of guys launching Airbnb (one of whom attended my high school just a head ahead of me) after renting out air mattresses in their apartment. It looked like a silly idea in a crowded, hotel-dominated market. Ugly, even. Confusing. Unnecessary. But it disrupted an entire industry—and now millions of us won't travel without it and it led to innovations in the legacy hotel industry too.

In your company, it may be the quietest team member—the one with an unconventional background—who brings the breakthrough idea. There’s upside in their timidity, it’s up to you to unleash it.

In your sales pipeline, it may be the lead that looks too small or messy to pursue—until it becomes a category-defining deal. My former colleague Lindsay Finlay showed me this when she literally stood up a customer vertical entirely on her own. What a bad ass. She saw the upside in the untapped market and gave us a real competitive advantage.

In your personal life, the tough season—the layoff, the breakup, the budget cuts—may hold the insight or growth you’ve been avoiding for years.

I’ve seen it in my coaching room again and again: clients uncovering strength through struggle, creativity through constraint, clarity through chaos.

Sometimes, the very thing we judge as a flaw - in ourselves, those around us, or our situation - is where the upside lives. Just waiting to be plucked out of the ground and tasted. Just like a mushroom.

The “ugly” parts of our story can be the most valuable.

So, here’s your invitation: Look around. Look again. There’s upside in the unexpected, the underestimated, the unlovable.

What you're doing here is Observing and Parcing. Steps 1 and 2 of The OPEN Method.

You don’t have to polish it or perfect it. Just be willing to see it—and let it impress you. Hell, let it change you.

If you're looking for a little more guidance and a lot more thought partnership to move the ball forward this fall, give me a shout.