Learned Along the Way #4

Jason-

Big, fat, happy congratulations to you and yours on the newest addition to the family. Hope you have all enjoyed some quality nesting time over the past week or so...don't hesitate to slap a picture or two up here so we can get our eyes on the newest anarchist to join the team!

A little radio silence has actually been kind of nice, and I really like what you came back with in #3. It reminded me a little bit of what Gordon MacKenzie says about new employees in his book Orbiting the Giant Hairball. He reminds us that new employees (and I would say young professionals) have a very unique magic as they come into an organization (or a community) with fresh eyes and fresh perspectives. Even though their perspective is especially valuable, our organizations and communities do a lot of things to beat it out of them and get them to look, talk and think exactly like the rest of us. It is important to have no fear if we are to push back on that dynamic and I think that lesson #4 fits very nicely with #3 and our earlier posts on this theme.

Lesson #4 Do Something. Now.

I think that it is important and valuable to network, to spend time getting to know people, to seek out feedback on your ideas and ideals, but too many folks never go beyond that. It is not hard to find a group of folks in a community or an organization that know exactly what should be done to make everything "perfect" and everyone "happy." They know all of the answers. They are passionate about their answers and they will (and do) talk until they are blue in the face. And talk is all they do.

It can be very easy to get bogged down in details, what is allegedly realistic, why you need to "pay your dues" before you can drive change, yadda, yadda, yadda....a little bit of this stuff is important and relevant, but most of it is bullshit. If you wait until you have the perfect plan and everyones support and have paid all of your dues your time will have expired on this planet.

If you see a better way to do something (and if you are awake and alive and paying attention, you do see a better way to do something), take some action. Do something. Now. You will make mistakes. If you do not make any mistakes you are not doing much at all. You will make some mistakes and you will ruffle some feathers and it is all part of the process and it is part of how change happens and how you learn and grow.

Do something. Now. Today. Right now. If you wait too long, you might just become one of those professional talkers that know all of the answers but never do anything.

Rock out a little bit today, it's Friday. And have a good weekend.
-joe