The value of not knowing the right way

I watched a young band play in a pub garden recently. As they went through their covers routine it struck me that when I had been playing in bands at that age(ish) I'd gone straight past the covers phase, direct to playing my own material.
Guess why? I didn't actually know the right way to play other people's songs - so I wrote my own.
That lack of knowing the right way forced me to find a new way.
 In fact I'd go further. There appears to me to be an increased risk of not being able to discover new ways if you are too keen on learning the 'right' way.
Be happy if you don't know the way things have always been done. Yours is the road to the new.