*OPINION PIECE* “In Order to Rebel, First You Must Conform”

By Bernard Van Houten

Most people who talk about rebellion are broken.

They think rebellion means doing whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. They call it “freedom.” I call it undisciplined chaos. In business, chaos doesn’t pay the bills. Structure does. Systems do. Discipline does.

Here’s the ugly truth nobody wants to hear:

If you haven’t proven you can conform, you haven’t earned the right to rebel.

You don’t get to reinvent the rules of the game until you’ve shown you can win by them.

This is my business philosophy:

• First, conform harder than anyone around you.
• Then, once you understand the machine from the inside out, you start bending it.
• That’s real rebellion. That’s where power lives.

Step 1: Conform Like a Soldier

When I say “conform,” I don’t mean become a mindless corporate drone.

I mean:

• Show up on time, every time.
• Outwork everyone in the room.
• Learn the standard playbook better than the people who wrote it.
• Respect the chain of command long enough to study it.

If you can't obey a schedule, you’re not ready to rewrite one.

People love to say, “I’m not built for a 9–5.”
Cool. But:

• Are you built for 12–12, seven days a week?
• Are you built for showing up when you’re tired, broke, stressed, and still performing at a high level?

Rebellion without proof of discipline is just ego with a costume on.

The Reason Conformity Comes First: Data

When you conform, you collect data:

• You learn how managers think.
• You learn how clients complain.
• You learn what actually moves money and what’s just corporate theater.
• You see where time is wasted, where value is created, and where everyone lies to themselves.

If you skip conformity and jump straight to “I’ll build my own thing,” you’re rebelling from ignorance, not from insight.

I didn’t just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to be a media warlord.”
Before I started building my own machine, I spent years:

• Clocking in
• Doing the routes
• Watching how businesses bleed profit through laziness and luxury
• Studying leaders, good and bad

I conformed. I played the role. I followed instructions.
Not because I’m naturally obedient — but because I was gathering intelligence.

Apprenticeship Before Empire

Every empire starts as an apprenticeship, whether people admit it or not.

You want to be a founder?

• Then first be the best employee somebody ever had. You want people to respect your standards?
• Then prove you can meet and exceed someone else’s.

Conformity is your tuition:

• You learn how invoices work
• You learn why deadlines matter
• You learn why managers freak out when small details get missed
• You learn what “professionalism” really means in the real world

Then, when you finally rebel and start your own operation, your rebellion is informed. It’s calculated. It’s efficient.

It’s not “I hate structure.”
It’s “I’ve studied structure and I can build a leaner, sharper version.”

Strategic Rebellion: Only After You’ve Earned It

Rebellion in business isn’t wearing hoodies, working from bed, and saying “I don’t believe in hierarchy.” That’s performative.

Real rebellion is:

• Refusing luxury and waste when everyone else chases status symbols
• Saying no to remote laziness and yes to in-person rigor
• Building a company culture that doesn’t apologize for expecting more
• Rejecting the idea that you need investors, permission, or a big last name to play at a high level

But to do that properly, you first have to:

• Understand how “normal” companies operate
• Know the standard excuses
• Know the standard scripts

Only then can you flip the table and say:
“We’re not doing it like that here.”

Why This Matters in Business

Here’s where people go wrong:

They think:

“I’m different. I’m not like everyone else. I don’t have to play by the rules.”

The world doesn’t pay you for being different.
The world pays you for being effective.

Conformity is how you prove:

• You can hit quotas
• You can handle pressure
• You can be reliable
• You can produce results on demand, not when you “feel inspired”

Once you’ve demonstrated that — to yourself, not just to a boss — you unlock something powerful: credibility.

Then your rebellion in business sounds less like delusion and more like a plan.

The Formula: Conform → Master → Rebel

You want a framework? Here it is.

1. Conform

Accept the rules of the existing system:

• Show up early
• Stay late
• Dress sharp
• Over-communicate
• Hit the basic metrics consistently

You’re not trying to “express yourself” yet. You’re building proof of competence.

2. Master

Once you’ve conformed long enough, you start seeing patterns:

• The shortcuts nobody talks about
• The bottlenecks everyone ignores
• The lies people tell themselves about “how things are done”

You begin to quietly outperform, and more importantly, you understand why.

3. Rebel

Now you move:

• You start your own thing
• You introduce a new model
• You cut the fat, keep the essentials, and tighten the screws

You’re no longer rebelling as a frustrated outsider.
You’re rebelling as an insider-turned-architect.

That’s the difference.

Conformity as Humility

“In order to rebel, first you must conform” is not just a productivity line. It’s a humility test.

Can you:

• Take orders before giving them?
• Learn before lecturing?
• Be a soldier before calling yourself a general?

If you can’t, you don’t want leadership — you want attention.

The entrepreneurs and founders who last are the ones who:

• Cleaned floors
• Took notes
• Did the “boring” tasks
• Ate their ego for breakfast and learned the fundamentals

Then, when they break away, their rebellion is quiet, relentless, and real.

My Personal Policy

In my world, I don’t take people seriously who:

• Have never held a job longer than a year
• Have never followed a tough schedule
• Don’t know what it’s like to be accountable to a standard they didn’t create

You want to build with me?
Show me:

• You can conform to a high bar
• You can execute without drama
• You can obey a system before trying to architect one

Because here’s my stance:

If you can’t conform, you’ll never be disciplined enough to sustain rebellion.

Final Word

Rebellion is sexy. Conformity is not. That’s why everyone wants to skip the first and LARP the second.

But in business, in life, in power-building, the sequence matters:

1. Conform – Learn the system.
2. Master – Dominate the system.
3. Rebel – Replace the system.

That’s not theory for me. That’s operating procedure.

In order to rebel, first you must conform.
Not because the world says so.
Because power does.

— Bernard Van Houten