I’ve owned my own business long enough to have experienced many things. I’ve seen what happens when I’m impatient, when I try to be something I’m not, when I trust my gut, when I overcome fear, when I wait something out, when I start something, when I finish something, when it’s time to move on, what it’s like to start over, what it’s like to commit fully and what it’s like to let go and embrace whatever happens.
But, mostly I’ve come to understand that if there’s no tinge chaos, no doubt about what’s going on around me, no lingering sense of unknown – nothing magical will happen.
My best work, I’ve discovered, is to construct questions – not to have all the answers.
I believe anyone has the ability to create the most remarkable business ever imagined and to do so only requires letting go of the need for what most define as order. So often we are so afraid of own chaos that we try to copy the rules, methods and processes of others in an attempt to mask it.
We fear above all else that this chaos might make us look foolish as we attempt to fashion something that we hope is art.
It is the illusion that this fear creates that leads us to generate businesses that are lifeless and dreary.
I’m not suggesting that we throw all process to the wind and intentionally build businesses that don’t serve, I’m am suggesting however, that this seeming chaos which we feel is actually a laughing, singing, dancing, remarkable order or its own.
If we can only find a way to embrace this order, the businesses we build will be the kind that feed the heart and soul.
This is strategy, this is culture, this is customer – this is the essence of a business that’s truly alive – embrace it.