Readorama: ‘Disrupt Yourself’ author Whitney Johnson to visit Plaza library branch Jan. 26

If following the “disruptive” path sometimes gets lonely, that’s not a bad thing.

It could mean you have a smart idea all to yourself.

That’s the advice of Whitney Johnson, author “Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work,” a manual for self-renewal.

“If you don’t feel lonely or a little bit scared, you are probably not on the right path of disruption,” Johnson said recently.

It’s self-improvement season.

While readers may be on board with the general sentiment of new year, new beginnings, they may be weary of the boardroom jargon that so often accompanies self-improvement strategies.

In Johnson’s case, she borrows her title from a term she attributes to Clayton Christensen, a faculty member of the Harvard Business School.

Disruption innovation usually describes a business establishing itself at the low end of a specific market and eventually upending and “disrupting” that market. Businesses that disrupt, according to Johnson, find footholds in markets that competing companies either have not noticed or ignored.

Example: Toyota, the Japanese carmaker that introduced the tiny Corona to the American car market in the late 1950s. The model prompted yawns from Detroit carmakers not interested in the economy car business.

By the time those same carmakers realized that Toyota had not only sold plenty of Coronas but were introducing the Camry in the early 1980s, it was too late. The U.S auto market had been disrupted.

Johnson says her own story is an example of individual disruption.

In 1989 she had moved to New York to find a job while her husband pursued a doctorate. She had been a music major in college. She started as a Smith Barney secretary and, after taking courses at night, landed a job as an investment banker — a disruptive move in itself, she said.

She later became an equity research analyst, but left that job in 2005.

She knew she had earned her disruptor credentials when friends asked if she was sure about what she was doing. That’s when it got lonely for her, too.

“You are going to the low end, and you are going someplace, creating a new market, where no one else wants to play,” Johnson said.

Those who disrupt themselves can switch jobs within a specific field, or switch fields. It’s not always a linear path. In Johnson’s case, she wrote a children’s book. Later she co-founded an investment firm, Rose Park Advisors.

But the overall concept, she added, was to avoid stagnation. Steve Wozniak, Apple computer pioneer, has called Johnson’s book a “handbook for innovation.”

If it all sounds easier said than done, Johnson packs her book with examples from the business world as well as her own life. Here’s where her background as an equity analyst comes in handy. Because Wall Street is never satisfied and stock analysts can be judged without mercy, Johnson knew she had to back up her buy-or-sell advice with compelling evidence.

“I couldn’t just say, ‘Buy this stock,’ ” Johnson said. “I am taking the same approach on this book as well.”

Johnson speaks at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch, 4801 Main St. For more information, go to kclibrary.org.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 6:19 AM.