Jason Zook - Own Your Weird: An Oddly Effective Way for Finding Happiness in Work, Life, and Love

As I sat in the courtroom, looking around at people who were also sitting with their lawyers, waiting to get some sort of approval from that days appointed judge, it slapped me in the face just how much I own my weird.

Was I sitting in the courtroom because Id committed a nefarious crime? Was I uncomfortably squirming in the wooden pew next to my lawyer because of some crazy offshore banking embezzlement scheme gone wrong? Was I there like most other folks who were going through a divorce or child custody battle? No friend, alas, I was there for a much more unique reason: I had sold my last name (via an online auction) and was trying to legally change my name from Jason Sadler to Jason Headsetsdotcom. Yep.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, my case number was finally called. I approached the bench (my Judge Judy moment!) and the judge reviewed my case file. I remember him looking at my file very differently than he had the twenty or so cases before me. As he read the official paperwork his head cocked slightly like a dog when you make a high-pitched whistling sound. He then proceeded to ask a bunch of questions like, Have you been convicted of any felonies recently? and Are you trying to avoid creditors by changing your last name? and the final one, What exactly does the name Headsetsdotcom mean? It was clearly a resounding NO to the first two questions, but for some reason I was nervous and barely squeaked out my reply. Luckily my lawyer handled the explanation of the new last name because he could tell I was in full flop-sweat and could barely form sentences.

Then, and I kid you not, with a swing of his actual wooden gavel, he stated, Ive never had a name change request like this, here we go and my legal last name was changed. It had to be the weirdest case he made a decision on that day/week/month.

To get you caught up on how this story started, a few months prior Id found out my parents were getting a divorce and the name Id used for most of my life (Sadler) was now completely meaningless to me. To make things more interesting, it was my third last name by age thirty and I was now left with an odd predicament. What do you do when you have a last name you no longer want? No stranger to putting myself out there and doing unconventional things, as well get to later in the book, I decided instead of leafing through the White Pages to attempt to discover a last name I liked, Id create an online auction to the legal rights of my last name for a year. Think of it like an eBay auction, but instead of bidding on some electronic gadget, youd be bidding for the ability to change my last name to your companys name.

Within twenty-four hours of launching the aptly named website BuyMyLastName.com in 2012, the auction to own the rights to my last name went from $0 and skyrocketed to $33,333. That is not a typo, that was an actual thing that happened! The bidding didnt stop there and after thirty days my last name was purchased by the headsets company Headsets.com for $45,500. My full name would be Jason Headsetsdotcom and with the visit to the courthouse and subsequent visit to the DMV, my drivers license told the entire (weird) story.

You may have picked up this book because youre the type of person who knows youre a little weird (or wants to stop fitting in and start owning your weird) but is nervous about the unknowns that come along with that. Will embracing your weird still allow you to have a job that provides the money you and your family need? If you commit to being truly your weird self, will you feel fulfilled in how you spend your time on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis? Im (weird) living proof theres another option to what the majority of society tells you is the right way to live and work. I didnt know that Id be able to carve out my own path when I was young, but I remember a constant nagging thought that there had to be another way to live, work, and succeed as an adult. A way that felt more akin to me and who I was as a person. A way where I could own my weird.

I think back to my childhood often, remembering the burning desire to accept who I was as a weird person and to not accept life as it was force-fed to me. With this came the constant thought: Why do I need to do X like other people? Why cant I do things my own unique way?

These days I dont even think about owning my weird anymoreits completely automatic. Ive come to understand that Im wired differently. This instinctive impulse I have to question convention, embrace what sets me apart, and avoid following in someone elses footsteps has ultimately translated into a business and life that I absolutely love.

Avoiding the well-traveled paths that others have laid out (what I like to call The Sea of Sameness) in order to forge my own has not only allowed me to stand out as an entrepreneur (leading to profitable businesses and an engaged audience), but it has also led me to design a life thats built around who I am as a person, with my unique values and what makes me happy.

It turns out the recipe for success and happiness is in the realization that there is no recipeyou have to own your weird and carve out your own path toward happiness, success, and fulfillment.

The good news is that you dont actually need special DNA to own your weird, you already have it! You simply need to develop a mindset that challenges societal norms and embraces your own uniqueness. But how do you do that? Well, thats what I want to share with you in this book.

In 2005, a young guy from England by the name of Alex Tew had an idea to help him pay for university that he simply named The Million Dollar Homepage. On this homepage that he created, there were a million pixels available for purchase. Each pixel was $1, and anyone could purchase these pixels to advertise whatever they wanted. Pretty freakin weird idea, huh?