Last Week in Chicago

Last week, we went to Chicago to visit a college my son is planning
on attending when he graduates.

He will be going to Columbia College. It was an incredible experience.

As we were going through this process it hit me....my son is going to
college. This was a very emotional experience for me. My little
boy is becoming a man. I couldn't be prouder.

I was in awe if him. The chance to spend four years in Chicago.
The experiences he will have; he will remember forever.

My wife and I almost enrolled ourselves.

The Aim Of Art

Aristotle said,
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. "

Recently, a project that I had been working on for two years went into production. This was a project where I actually did some coding. I have not done hunkered down coding for several years. Needless to say, my skills were a bit rusty on many levels. Let's face it, the programming world had passed me by on so many levels. Basically, I knew enough to get the job done. Was I worried? Absolutely! Everyone who reads my blog, knows that I'm not a fan of Microsoft's development tools. On this project, I chose some unconventional tools. I chose Flex for the user interface and FileMaker for the database. This was a high end application. Using these tools; I'm sure some very smart computer scientists would say I was nuts. I tend to choose tools that focus more on the artistic design elements versus the technical elements. Plus, these technologies are very easy to use. However, in this case all the logic would tell you that this approach is suspect. For a period of time, I agreed. I can't tell you how much I worried about whether or not FileMaker would choke. I also worried whether or not Flex would hold up. Many sleepless nights over this.

Live day approaches and I'm one nervous dude. Well, live day came and went and the application was a raving success. Not because I wrote some great code --- this organization had hired its own programmer that I'm sure fixed a great deal of my programming flaws. Nevertheless, I was still worried.

Then it hit me. I was worried for the wrong reasons . I was more worried about the tools instead of worrying about the design. Would this design solve the problems this organization was facing?

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a little nervous about the choices I made on this project. However, it's much easier to switch out the tools than trying to find a better design. The significance of this project was the fact that we had found the answer to a big problem that was troubling the organization.

Ahead Of My Time...

Have you ever heard someone tell you...."you're ahead of your time"? I have and let me tell you that it's nothing to be proud of. Over my twenty plus career, I have had more blunders than successes. The successes I've had were some grand slams but for the most part...lots of blunders. In some instances, those "so-called" blunders are now viewed as "ahead of their time". Insert Puke here. :-) It doesn't matter. If the idea that was ahead of its time died for whatever reason, it's not ahead of its time. It's dead!

You might be asking what causes this phenomena? There are many.

Devil's Advocates
I believe, for the most part, one gets tired of trying to get their idea past the Devil's Advocates. Those evil doers who try to knock down ideas versus build them up. If you haven't read the "Ten Faces of Innovation", you should. Regardless what you might believe, you're outnumbered by these devil's advocates. There have been so many times I just gave up on an idea because I was too tired to fight the good fight.

Not Willing To Take a Risk

If you're not willing to stick your neck out -- the idea will die. That's where I've made most of my mistakes. Not willing to stick my neck out and take a chance. Unless, I have a 99.9% chance of making it work.

Not Willing To Put Forth The Effort
How easy is it to take a brilliant idea and put the work on someone else to execute? I've also made this mistake. Let's leave it up to someone else to work out the details. BAD! Nothing against those folks, but they will be your demise if you're not involved. If you can't see your idea through, don't do it. Don't leave the details up to someone else. Be part of the team who is doing the work.

Rationalization

We humans can rationalize anything if we want to bad enough. You end up talking yourself out of too many things that will cause it to fail and/or be less than what you envisioned. Establish the "Gotta Haves" and never compromise on those. Wiggle on the rest (Nice To Haves, Need To haves) but never that. Some times you have just have to..."JUST SAY NO". If it means more work than so what.

Courage
Change takes a great deal of courage. If you and/or your organization doesn't have the courage to change then seek counseling. I've seen many brilliant innovations that have worked their way around core problems that for whatever reasons don't get dealt with. You may achieve some incremental success but if you don't attack the core problems, you'll be dealing with it later. Also, if you're not in a position to change the core problems, than don't. Just move on. You've done your duty making the organization aware. It's up to the powers that be to make the change. If you don't have their buy-in then it's not going to happen.

Talk Is Cheap

I hate meetings. Meetings are where a bunch of people gather to talk. If you spend too much time talking you'll end up rationalizing which will cause you to lose the courage which makes you not want to put forth the effort to take a risk. Follow Me? I believe in collaboration. There is a big difference between meetings to talk vs having collaborative meetings.

Finally, I can say all these things because I have suffered from each. I have also benefited on those rare occasions where I listened to my own advice. Being ahead of your own time is not a badge of honor unless the idea saw the light of day. Let this serve as a call to action to all the ThinkTankers, BarCampers, Bloggers, and organizations who have been spending too much time talking about ideas. My friend and business partner Doug True was instrumental in starting a group sponsored by the Indiana Credit Union League whose charter to is not only generate ideas but to implement them. This group is called Ignite. Get-R-Done!