An antonym for "what you might have assumed"

It is right on the tip of my tongue, and I have searched the online thesauruses but I can't come up with it. What's the word that could fill in the blank:

He came to the ___ conclusion that you must be willing to serve if you want to truly lead.

The best I could come up with is "non-intuitive", but that just doesn't sound right. I know there's a better one. I want a word that means "this is not what you would expect", "this goes against your intuition". Something that approaches "nonsensical" or "irrational" but without the disparaging overtones, yet more forceful than "surprising".

Solution 1:

Counterintuitive ("Contrary to intuition or common sense"), as one word rather than hyphenated, is appropriate. (The hyphenated form is an accepted variant.)

After I thought of this word, I noticed John Lawler already mentioned it in a comment. Oh well.

Other possibilities are contrary ("opposed in nature") and contrarian ("a person who expresses a contradicting viewpoint, especially one who denounces the majority persuasion"), with the latter noun used adjectively.

Solution 2:

Another possibility is "paradoxical" or "seemingly paradoxical".

Solution 3:

Astounding?

: causing astonishment or amazement

He came to the astounding conclusion that you must be willing to serve if you want to truly lead.