When Shoveling Sh&t is Easier

Sometimes, shoveling sh&t is easier than shoveling caviar. It's the path of least resistance.  It makes sense. No one argues with you.  It's usually the right thing to do. Who in their right mind would keep the sh&t and shovel the caviar? 

But.... what if the best thing for your business, your organization, is to shovel the caviar, not the sh&t? That's crazy!!! You've spent years investing in that rare and unique caviar.  It's a valuable niche! Sure, it's harder to get it due to increasing geo-political entanglements, environmental and regulatory constraints and access to product, but it still has a strong profit margin and, you believe, defines your brand.  But, whether you admit it or not, the business model has run its course.

Sometimes, you have to shovel the caviar and keep the sh&t.  It's been a great ride; be grateful.  The costs are sunk - yup, down at the bottom along with the sturgeons, not coming to the top anymore. Time to move on.  Time to get out of the office, into the world, see what people need and want, and create something new.  It's time to shovel the caviar and keep the sh&t.

What is the Root of Knowledge?

Jonaton Pie ~ Stakkholtsgja Canyon, Iceland

I've been thinking a lot about what makes people want to create, invent, innovate, learn.  So many of my colleagues and friends are innately curious and I know that, for me, learning is an addiction.  So, appropriately, I was reading one of my favorite philosophers/theologians and found this:

““Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge. Doubt comes in the wake of knowledge as a state of vacillation between two contrary or contradictory views; ... the business of doubt is one of auditing the mind’s accounts about reality ... “”

— Abraham Heschel, "Man is Not Alone," pg 11

We certainly learn through doubting - we gain knowledge and insight by doubting, questioning, and even doubting our doubts.  But at the root of it all, what gets us to doubt in the first place, is our ability to wonder, to ponder, to think.  

How much more would we learn if we could wonder as we did when we were 4 or 5 or 8 years old? What can we try to truly wonder about this week? I'm curious!

Look for What's Working!

May - when spring really starts for many of us in the 'north'.  So, just a short blog - more of a request.  

This week, instead of looking at what's not working all the time, try 2 times, just 2, to find what's working, why it's working and how you can make that happen more.  Try this at work, at home, wherever you want - but please, try it - just twice, that's not asking a lot....

“Find what’s working & why! #BrightSpots”

Let me know how it goes! Feel free to share!