Speed in the Marketplace

I caught up with a friend of mine today who has gone from a traditional Corporate America role, to his own consulting gig.  The speed at which my friend has built his new company is somewhat breath taking.  It got me thinking about the balance between moving slowly and deliberately in the business world versus moving fast and being agile.

On the one hand, there is slow and deliberate.  This offers you the best chance to "get it right the first time" and cut down on expensive and time consuming work arounds.  It usually also follows a collaborative process which means everyone has a say, and (in theory) keeps morale up.  The challenge with this one of course, is that slow and deliberate can easily morph into "indecision" if you aren't careful.  There's nothing more crippling than indecision.

On the other hand, there is fast and agile.  Focus, analyze, develop, and execute in 48 hours and go...and go...and go faster.  This definitely delivers your speed to market...but it definitely increases the loopholes and trap doors into which things can fall.  The flip side of this is that, I'm starting to believe that people that move this quickly and nimbly in today's marketplace are going so fast, that by the time all the competition notices that a mistake was made...it's too late because it's already been fixed and is in the rear view mirror.

As this blog is about balance...I feel like I'm supposed to say the proper mix is somewhere in between, but I don't fully believe that.  For those of us that are in a company or an industry that is trying to dramatically change culture or shift paradigms, we need to be fast and agile.  For those of us that are in industries where things like continuous process improvement is key...then slow and steady probably wins the day.

All I know is...my buddy that is out in the market place and moving fast is having one hell of a good time doing so.  

The only people smarter than him are my friends that are bartenders and waiters.  Now...truly...THESE guys have the right idea.  They always have money for a beer and always can find time to get a cold one with friends.  Lobster season in the keys?  No problem...they can take a week off and head down.  Surf's up?  No problem...they always have time to paddle out!  Actually...it's this crew that has the right idea and have definitely struck the right balance!  I think I need to go join them!

Namaste

Living in the moment?

Ferris Bueller spectacularly taught those of us from a certain generation that "life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around sometime, you are going to miss it".

I was stunned yesterday to hear of the passing of a friend of mine.  This guy had just turned 51.  He led a healthy lifestyle, and was fortunate enough to have turned his excellent eye for photography into a successful business.  He had a family and a massive network of friends.  He apparently had a hemorrhagic stroke, and just could not recover.  It's crazy to think that one little internal malfunction can cause such dramatic devastation, but there you go.  From what I can tell from the tribute site that is already thriving for him, he epitomized living in the moment.  While I'm sad he's gone now, it is somewhat comforting to know he made the most of his time on this planet.

So, thinking about Ferris' advice and stopping to look around now...I see so much negativity, it makes me sad.  Try sitting through 10 minutes of the local or national news sometime.  It's nearly all bad.  Turn to social media and see what's happening there.  In my own current experience, people seem to be taking darkness to social media as well.  I see so many rants about Obamacare, corrupt officials, police brutality, the right to arm yourself to teeth, the neighbor's dog crapped in their yard, and on and on and on.

I applaud these people's passion...AND...I worry about their balance.  There's no way to know if some of these passions are obsessive without observing these people 24/7, but some of them sure seem to be.  I hope they are also carving out time to spend with families or friends, or playing or listening to music, or doing something outside which puts them in touch with nature somehow...or all of the above.

Remember...there is always suffering, and there is a reason for the suffering.  The suffering ends though, and there is a path to the end of that suffering.  We are only here for a short time.  Life does move fast and we need to look around.  Being passionate about something is great, we just need the balance of other things to keep that passion in the proper prospective.

Namaste