---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: innovators need to be disagreeable. By…"
description: "\"“innovators need to be disagreeable. By disagreeable, I don’t mean obnoxious or unpleasant. I mean that on that fifth dimension of the Big Five persona..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9c/malcolm-gladwell-348_agreeableness_innovators-need-to-be-disagreeable-by-di_691550.png"
---

#  innovators need to be disagreeable. By disagreeable, I…

![“innovators need to be disagreeable. By disagreeable, I don’t mean obnoxious or unpleasant. I mean that on that fifth dimension of the Big Five personality inventory, “agreeableness,” they tend to be on the far end of the continuum. They are people willing to take social risks—to do things that…” quote by Malcolm Gladwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9c/malcolm-gladwell-348_agreeableness_innovators-need-to-be-disagreeable-by-di_691550.png)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9c/malcolm-gladwell-348_agreeableness_innovators-need-to-be-disagreeable-by-di_691550.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9c/malcolm-gladwell-348_agreeableness_innovators-need-to-be-disagreeable-by-di_691550.png)

> ““innovators need to be disagreeable. By disagreeable, I don’t mean obnoxious or unpleasant. I mean that on that fifth dimension of the Big Five personality inventory, “agreeableness,” they tend to be on the far end of the continuum. They are people willing to take social risks—to do things that others might disapprove of.””

[Malcolm Gladwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-gladwell/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Innovators often score low on agreeableness, embracing social risk and challenging norms to drive change.

**In simple terms:** Innovators are often disagreeable, taking social risks.

Key Takeaway

Embrace constructive dissent.

Themes

creativity risk innovation

Mood

challenging energetic

Type

motivational philosophical

When to use this quote

- Startup leadership
- product design
- team brainstorming
- cultural change

Key Concepts

Personality social risk Big Five

Questions to Reflect On

- How can you balance dissent with teamwork?
- When does disagreement become counterproductive?

A Different Perspective

Being too disagreeable can alienate collaborators.

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[Agreeableness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agreeableness-5008/) [Agreeableness Tend](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/agreeableness-tend-5493019/) [Disagreeable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disagreeable/) [Disagreeable Disagreeable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disagreeable-disagreeable-237182/) [Need Disagreeable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/need-disagreeable-5158356/)

## Related quotes

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> [We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francois-de-la-rochefoucauld/we-may-say-of-agreeableness-as-distinct-from-beauty-that-it-is-a/)

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[Sir Fulke Greville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sir-fulke-greville/)

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[Immanuel Kant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/immanuel-kant/)

> [“Agreeable people are warm, supportive, and loving; personality psychologists have found that if you sit them down in front of a computer screen of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-cain/agreeable-people-are-warm-supportive-and-loving-personality/)

[Susan Cain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-cain/)

> [Vanity is the poison of agreeableness; yet as poison, when artfully and properly applied, has a salutary effect in medicine, so has vanity in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sir-fulke-greville/vanity-is-the-poison-of-agreeableness-yet-as-poison-when-artfully-and/)

[Sir Fulke Greville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sir-fulke-greville/)

> [“Trocmé was disagreeable in the same magnificent sense as Jay Freireich, and Wyatt Walker, and Fred Shuttlesworth. And the beauty of the disagreeable is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-gladwell/trocm-was-disagreeable-in-the-same-magnificent-sense-as-jay-freireich/)

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> [Innovators have to be open. They have to be able to imagine things that others cannot and be willing to challenge their own preconceptions.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-gladwell/innovators-have-to-be-open-they-have-to-be-able-to-imagine-things-2/)

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> [“It's a very bad habit to put off disagreeable things...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/l-m-montgomery/it-s-a-very-bad-habit-to-put-off-disagreeable-things/)

[L.M. Montgomery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/l-m-montgomery/)

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[George Mason](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-mason/)

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[Henry James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-james/)

## More by Malcolm Gladwell

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> [A lively and agreeable man has not only the merit of liveliness and agreeableness himself, but that also of awakening them in others.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sir-fulke-greville/a-lively-and-agreeable-man-has-not-only-the-merit-of-liveliness-and/)

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