Rodent Regatta

If you (and the other reader of this site) have been watching for any length of time at all, you’ve seen numerous links to Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do With My Life? Since its first mention here in December, it has steadily climbed all the major bestseller lists.

Some things simply bear repeating.

After reading about Dan Miller’s 61-year old client, I recalled a chapter titled The Once-Angry Minister in Bronson’s book. It’s about a lawyer-turned-minister and it is so fitting:

What are we to do with this enhanced story of ourselves? Can what-we-do really be in alignment that deeply with who-we-are? I think it can, if we let ”I’m going to be truer to myself” be the principle that drives our decisions every time we come to a crossroads. Through trial and error, we are pushed to greater recognition about what we really need. The Big Bold Step turns out to be only the first step.

Through the past fifteen years of my career, this notion of alignment has been prevalent. Most often it’s the alignment of activities in a business to achieve a certain end. However, more often than not, it’s also about what the business is doing to really provide the intrinsic rewards that the owner(s) thought s/he might get when they started or bought the business.

It takes an outsider to both see and ask the kinds of questions that haven’t been getting answered for too long. Whether the questions are asked of an individual as s/he focuses on life or whether they are asked of a management team in a small, closely-held company, the goal is the same. ”Please help us find the meaning and significance in what we’re doing or help us get to things that do provide meaning and significance.”