George's decision to change his luck by doing the opposite of his usual M.O. in the 1994 Seinfeld episode The Opposite is more than the basis for a comedy show. It's an actual, proven way to turn your life around. I first discovered this concept, from a long out-of-print book called Own Your Own Life by Gary Emery. "When you're off track, take the opposite tack.", he wrote. i recently asked a friend of mine, a college dropout, who went from working minimum wage retail jobs to being in charge of a huge tech project worth millions of dollars, if she had any advice on becoming successful. "Yes," she said, "Look at what everybody else is doing - and then do the opposite."