I saw this quote on some tumblr site and … well … I thought about business and learning from the past.
Business loves … no … frickin’ adores past business success stories & experiences. They fondle, caress and shower with adoration ideas shared in business books and successes as reflected in some case study.
Look.
I admit.
I am not a huge business book guy and I rarely read them. I tend to find them simplistic tripe as well as … well … as an ex advertising agency account guy I got sick of having my clients read some new book and start chasing the new “marketing crap du jour.”
But, in general, I have a general philosophy about business ideas from books and past experience and … well … using an existing idea or case study in business … it is like picking a flower.
Huh?
It looks great. It smells frickin’ wonderful. And if you water it you can keep it alive for quite some time.
Okay.
“Time” being maybe a week.
It wilts and then it dies.
And all you are stuck with is a nice vase, some quickly clouding nasty water … and the memories of a beautiful flower <which died in your hands>.
To be clear.
I will never ever suggest someone should not read. I will never suggest someone shouldn’t try and learn something. I will never suggest that listening to smart people discuss smart ideas has no value. I will never suggest looking at past successes.
But I will suggest that all of those things inform decisions they do not make decisions.
I cannot pluck a flower from somewhere and grow it ‘here.’
I am consistent.
Ideas and successes are contextual to a time, place and people <add in whatever other dimensions you would like … the longer the list the better the point I am making>.
The success was within a distinct moment in time.
And, please, please don’t tell me that an old success idea/process/formula will recreate some ‘white space’ for your business.
True ‘white space’ is … well … trying to find the eye of a needle … on a ship in the middle of an ocean during a hurricane.
In other words. Good luck.
Anyway.
Yeah. Sure. I look at the past and what a business did and what worked and what didn’t work. Anyone worth a shit in business does that.
But, you know what? I look at both what worked and what DIDN’T work … and I have found that you can steal something from everything and reconfigure all your learning <adding in some new ingredients> and you can create your own recipe for success … in this time and place and context.
I do wish more business people thought of past success, wherever they find them, as flowers which will die if you pick it to use.
Yeah.
People will give me exceptions … but exceptions do not reflect the rule. But that would be too hard. Most business people want to replicate and not create and most business people view past business success as ‘a rule we should follow’ <and not ‘an exception’>.
Me?
I am leaving the flowers where they are blooming or have bloomed. They look great there.
I am growing my own frickin’ flowers.