Just do it!

[From a comment by ej]

Almost all major creative changes that have occurred in Jewish life happened because a person or group just decided to do it.

The Rambam and Saadya Gaon didn't ask a heter to import ideas from Muslim philosophy. The mechaber or group that wrote out the Zohar didn't ask the Moetzel Gedolei Hatorah of their time if their ideas were acceptable. The century after Shabbsai Tzvi, which must be the craziest century in all of Jewish history, was populated by people who just did it, to use the Nike slogan.

Reb Yonason and Reb Yaakov Emden were both mad bulls in a china shop, headstrong, somewhat deceptive, with the consequence that most of European Jewry was put in cherem by one side or the other. Rav Noson Adler, the rebbe of the Chasam Sofer and the Ramchal were both excommunicated. As were the chassidim. Each group followed their own ideas, cherem or no cherem. And if we are to believe modern research even the circles around the Vilna Gaon were compromised by heresy.

In the 19th century millions of Jews left Orthodoxy and took up many different ideologies, many of which, like secularism, Zionism and socialism proved quite successful. In our time Hadar, Shirah Chadashah, Conservadox, Carlebach and independent minyanim just did what they wanted to, with no rabbinic cover and no fighting. Same for neo chasidus and Jewish Renewal.

The only group that got nowhere were the maskilim. They stayed around and tried to convince the backward uneducated Orthodox masses to become enlightened. Not only did they for the most part fail, they were insulted and mocked, humiliated and disgraced until today. A life devoted to correcting Orthodoxy usually leads to frustration. Over time you become like the group you fight with.