I crashed a party this weekend and got kicked out.

Well, it was really more of a business meeting than a party. But hey, I still got bumped by the bouncer—in this case a high-powered female entrepreneur instead of a burly barman. Even though the messenger was different, the message was the same: you are not allowed here.

As the group of speaking professionals gathered around the meeting table, a man spoke to the woman in charge, saying, “There are some people that don’t belong here.”

I was busted.

In front of the entire group, I was escorted out. Like a teenager being shunned by the cool in-crowd, I was embarrassed, hurt, and angry.

Would I put myself back into that same position again? You betcha. In a minute. I wanted to learn from this group, and I was willing to break a few rules to do just that.

How about you? Would you put yourself in a place you didn’t belong, with the threat of getting kicked out, just to learn? How far would you go to learn what you want to learn? To do what you are being called to do?  

Computer genius Bill Joy—the programmer who wrote much of the software that allows you to access the Internet and the guy who co-founded Sun Microsystems—broke school rules about allotted computer time. So he could spend more time learning programming, Joy exploited a bug in the software, giving him unlimited access to the computer. This open learning vista gave him the practice needed to accomplish great things later in life that both you and I benefit from.

Bill Gates broke the rules to learn. As a teenager, he would tiptoe out of his house in the wee hours of the morning to walk to the University of Washington, where he would steal more time on the computer. Between the hours of three and six in the morning, young Gates practiced playing the computer the way Beethoven practiced playing the piano—for hours and hours over years and years.   

If you want to learn more, if you have a calling you’re following, rules, regulations, certifications, documentations or diplomas don’t mean nearly as much as the actual doing. That’s why Gates and Joy broke rules to do the computer stuff they love. That’s why I break rules to do the entrepreneurial stuff I love.

It’s the doing that calls to you. And that call is much louder than the warning bells to follow the rules.

Life is full of rules, and people will always be happy to share why this rule applies to you.

What rules are you going to break to learn what needs to be learned? To do what is being called for you to do?

The whole world will scream at you, “Don’t do that! You’re breaking the rules!”

Do you listen?

What rules are you living by—yours or others?Go ahead, crash a few parties. Get thrown out. Get rejected. Feel embarrassed. Do a little "this-is-so-unfair" dance. Let your inner child have a self-righteous tantrum.
 
Then turn your attention inward. What's next? Because it's not about participating in parties that others are throwing. It's about throwing your own party. And that party is called your life.