Can You Do It Better?

The TV show Friends just celebrated its 30th anniversary (yes, we’re freaking old).

It’s beloved now, but when it premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994, its chances for survival were slim.

A week before the series premiere, in its legendary Fall Preview, TV Guide wrote, “First came Seinfeld, then came Ellen’s sitcom. Do we need yet another pack-of-pals show?”

Sure, Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane could have thought that, right? Instead, they wanted to create a TV show that captured their dynamic of living in New York with a group of friends, where everyone was each other’s best friend and more like a family.

Supposedly, Mark Twain was the first to say, “There is no such thing as an original idea.”

And it’s probably true. But it’s really not about the idea; it’s about the execution.

We all know that Jobs didn’t create the first smartphone, and Zuckerberg didn’t build the first social media company—they just made, arguably, the best ones.

People get hung up on firsts: first flight, first to climb Mount Everest, first moonwalk. Sure, it’s cool to be first at something, but don’t you think the second person to fly, reach the summit or walk on the moon felt pretty cool, too?

I used to joke that my mentor at 95.5 PLJ, Scott Shannon, the Hall of Fame DJ, never had an original idea in his life, yet he has gone down as one of the most innovative and groundbreaking people in radio history.

His secret? “Do it sideways.” Bear with me a moment.

You see, Scott always had an eye out for the next big thing, but he wasn’t searching to create something from scratch. If he saw something he liked, he would take the kernel of the idea and recreate it or “do it sideways.”

For him, “doing it sideways” meant looking at it from a different angle and putting your spin on something.

Way back in 1997, Titanic was all the rage, and one of our competitors—Z100—had a brilliant idea to insert clips of the movie into the classic Celine Dion song “My Heart Will Go On.” Scott said, “Good idea! Let’s make a better version.” He tasked production director, the late great Gene Wooten, to “do it sideways,” and he did.

Here’s the funny part: since we had adopted the idea so quickly, the local media thought we were the first station to come up with this brilliant movie-music mashup. This understandably upset the guy who did it first; he was reportedly found crying in the fetal position when it was written about in the New York Daily News.

Now, I’m not condoning copying or plagiarizing anyone’s work, but I do want us to embrace the idea that we shouldn’t refrain from creating something just because we weren’t first. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have a lot of things.

Star Wars was basically Dune if it were a western. The Beatles followed the Chuck Berry playbook. And who cares if Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross were basically nicer versions of Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer?

Looking back, it’s clear that innovation often comes from the willingness to reinterpret what already exists. Originality is not just about being the first; it’s about infusing fresh energy and perspectives into stuff we know. Shake it off and keep it off-limits. So, let’s stop waiting for the perfect moment to create something new and embrace the beauty of iteration.

When inspiration strikes, ask yourself: how can I put my unique twist on this concept?

Whether you’re an artist, entrepreneur, or simply someone with a story to tell, remember that your voice matters. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you just need to add your own spin to it — sort of like I did with this article.

Experiment, collaborate, and don’t hesitate to be inspired by others. Share your ideas with the world, and who knows? I want you to take those kernels of ideas you love and start “doing it sideways.”