What Are We Missing?
I met with a group of thought leaders in the digital marketing services industry this weekend. One of the businesses represented in the group has been particularly hard hit by the recession. Their plight was weighing heavy on my mind during the long flight home. Unfortunately, I wasn’t coming up with any particular strategies to help him out of his predicament. After a few hours of frustration, I decided to finish my new book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Just like his other books The Tipping Point and Blink, I was hooked. His ideas are not just interesting, they make you think. I got up this morning still considering the points he makes about how we look at success and those who achieve it. And then it happened. After dropping my kids off at school a great idea - one that can really help my client - just popped into my head. I had a full evening with my two daughters and the normal Monday morning chaos of getting off to school after a two day lull in the action. I hadn’t had time to ponder my client’s situation for more than eighteen hours. But there it was …a darn good idea. I shared it with my client later in the day and he thought so too. So here’s the point: The problems we are dealing with today are significant. Many of us haven’t seen economic conditions like this since the 70s and some of us have never seen them. If you spend your days looking at the same surroundings, talking about the same dismal economic prognostications, hearing the same problems over and over, your mind is going to be in a rut. So change the scenery, change the conversation, read something you wouldn’t normally read. Get the motor on the old brain running again and a great idea might just pop out. What have you done lately to shake your brain up?