Business ideas come and go. Given my growing maturity (code phrase for age), I often morn the passing of a good idea. I understand the faddish nature of things. I do not understand why we need to be as trendy as we are. Where is the depth in our understanding?
Reflections suggest that we go through several phases with ideas. It begins with a “do it because someone else, usually a boss, thinks it is a good idea”. We adopt and follow because we are told! We may or may not understand. It is not as if we object. However, if we are candid with ourselves, we know we are not believers. We are doing without thinking, acting without passion.
For a minority, the idea begins to permeate one’s thinking. We get the “why”. The beauty of this phase rests in how individuals begin to adopt the idea in different ways. Some see this as making the idea real. I see it as using the idea in bigger ways than it was imagined. Quality principles move from being a change idea to becoming a way of managing the business. Productivity measures change from accountability points with a negative connotation to health metrics we are looking to improve.
For most, it ends here. For a select few, the outside idea takes root in their way of looking at life. It is part of their success formula. In balance, it fits. Quality techniques touch on relationships, soft skills for people take on financial characteristics.
I realize that it does not end with work. A question remains. Am I connecting the inside me with the outside? “You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!” (1 Corinthians 6.13)
Great ideas fill us from the inside out. They involve all of me.
