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MATTERS MORE THAN MOST
Monday Feb. 15, 2016
That’s my conclusion. Let me show the way …
In Search Of Excellence – seminal work by Tom Peters, explained greatness, how companies get on top, stay on top. Celebrity athletes, performers and biz-wizards, software bullion-aires get there too. Stay there. Not all. But many. How? Why?
I could ask directions …
How do I get where I’m going?
Q. How do we get to our ‘big stage’? What are we best at? How, and to what degree to we distinguish ourselves from the noise, the blur, of everyone else?
A. Point of view. Our own. Original, like a snowflake – never exactly duplicated. One of a kind.
Do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall? If I’m at W57th & 5th in New York, I can easily direct you or we walk those two blocks together. Or, going the way, travel 24,859.82 miles/40,008 km. Ask any musician. They’ll answer: practice, practice, practice.
Too often we measure ‘reaching goals’ in terms of distance travelled, time invested, money earned or status achieved. Seems we need more.
Mind mapping projects, plotting months or years, setting goals, making plans – nothing new there, done that, many times, but what if I used a new approach, new path, new … something?
Being best at something. Start. Not ‘anything’. Not ‘anything we want’, but ‘anything we want badly enough’ …
Chart course, make plans … asking for directions. Do we want anything badly enough to pay the price of getting there? Does what we are doing matter to anyone else, provide value to anyone else, make anything better or anyone’s life better?
How do we get to Carnegie Hall?
Start with, “why does it matter?”
When we talk about people – that question is easier to answer.
When we question our ventures, our careers, our projects – answers are illusive. Clouded by ego in a crowd of noise. But, at its core, if it is something we want badly enough because it is worthy enough, it will matter – then being on any stage in any hall won’t matter much.
Mark Kolke
written / published from Calgary, AB
morning walk: -1C/31F, cloudy (the spring kind), light breeze and no encounters with humans or critters – streets are empty and mostly silent befitting a holiday (Family Day here, Presidents Day in the U.S.), Gusta skidded on some ice for my amusement (but not hers!), project/work day for me …
Reader feedback:
TO TREMBLE AGAIN
Hi Mark, Why is it that wonderful things come our way when, as you suggest, we least expect it? I think that, if we are concentrating too hard on a particular outcome, others sense that hunger in our eyes and body language and it scares them away. I need to remember that and relax and enjoy the ride. Wishing you (and I hope you can wish yourself) a Happy Valentine's Day. No more trembling, CG, Cobourg, ON
Great writing today, JF, Calgary, AB
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