Talent Acquisition

I read this amusing quote from Tom Peter's "Circle of Innovation", one of the strong advocates of "innovation as a way of life". Read through this slowly:

David Ogilvy the late great advertising man said fundamentally the same thing that “our business needs a major transfusion of talent, and talent I believe is most likely to be found among non-conformers, dissenters and rebels [Pause] The next time you are reviewing a CV, let me offer you a practical advice, if there is nothing strange on the CV, like a lost year, do not hire the person. Never hire people who had incredibly high grade point averages at the university. Because, those are the ones I worry about, The ones who had high averages at university and secondary schools, do you know what exceptionally high grades means, it means you played according to the rules, you bought the act, you colored inside the lines ,effectively to be sure, but the simple fact of the matter is but if some ain't screwed up in a majorly big way in the age of 23 , they are not going to do anything interesting by the age of 83. "

The thought is interesting though, Probably justifies some college drop outs who attained phenomenal success(Bill Gates, Michael Dell). It disproves the practices that organizations follow :look at just grades and degrees get the top cream of B-Schools, who obviously have done nothing else than studying to be on top!. The moral is to look for ordinary people who can pull out extraordinary things!!!