You are a leader. An innovator. A regular boardroom maverick.

Or are you?

As much as we all take risks in our heads, there are few people on this earth who actually take risks in the world of branding.

But the CEOs and leaders who do take risks are the ones who have built brands that stand out and succeed.

Ask pretty much any CEO or Marketing Director which brand they admire, and the answer is almost always the same – Apple. But I can tell you right now, most of them have a long way to go to have even a fraction of Steve Jobs’ giant cojones.

Do you think Steve Jobs ever looked at the original iPod silhouette campaign and thought – even for a minute – “maybe we ought to highlight some features instead?” Do you think he wanted to add more copy to the iPad packaging?

Of course not. This is the person who revolutionized the consumer electronics category, making it simple and cool for average consumers instead of just tech-heads and gadget junkies.

McKinsey just highlighted in their latest newsletter why best practices are not always the best strategy. Well, duh! If you want to differentiate your brand, you can’t simply look back at what people have done in the past or even what everyone is doing right now. You have to take the reigns and drive not just your advertising or even your brand, but your whole category right into the future.

You may fail. All people who take risks fail once or twice along the way – even Mr. Jobs. But that’s a risk you have to take to make your products, services, business model and brand bigger and better than they are now.

Are you ready to take it to the next level? And more importantly, do you have the cojones to do it?