MentorWords

You’ve heard the old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” That sounds pretty benign until you consider all the places you don’t want to be but might find yourself.

If someone else is responsible for us – our pain, or our joy, doesn’t matter – that means we are not responsible for ourselves. And if we are not responsible for ourselves, then we have no control over our future. If we have no control over our future, the future is hopeless, because every adult human being ultimately craves the responsibility, the joy, and even the hardships of carving our own experience out of the stuff of life.

Fight or flight syndrome leaves out an important – and destructive – third reaction. Freeze. Are you doing the business equivalent of the suicidal bunny routine?

Two-year-olds have it right. If adults asked “why” as many times per day as the average two-year-old, what influence would that have on the way – and the amount – we learn?

The solution to the inscrutable question of “why am I not fulfilling my life potential” may be something as simple and common as salt. Or tennis shoes.

Entrepreneurs sell something produced from the depths of their self identity. They sell their ideas, artistic expression, and innovation in the form of products. They struggle to remain motivated and confident as their products are buffeted by impersonal market forces. Critical reasoning skills can mean the difference between forging on to success or flaming out and returning to the life of the paystub.

Are American advertising firms dumbing everything down because Americans are lazy thinkers, or are Americans lazy thinkers because we are confronted — no, assaulted — by a constant barrage of stupidity? When we find cultural leaders – thinkers – who respect our intelligence, we demand a great deal of them. And rightfully so.