A Horse is a Horse of Course, Unless

Part 2 of Special a 4-Part Series

Lessons from A Deliberate Pause

By Larry Robertson

When we look at success - successful people, successful ventures - we are all too fond of fixating on ‘one.' Our fondness for a hero is one obvious example of this fixation on one. We like and perpetuate the idea of one person who did it all on their own. And in so doing, we miss the fact that many people contribute to success.

In a similar way, we tend to overemphasize the importance of any one point in time to success. It sounds so much easier and more appealing to have a single moment when all the stars align, the heavens open, and the goal is reached seemingly overnight than to acknowledge how things truly work. But of all the ‘one' myths we perpetuate, perhaps the worst is the belief that success is the result of a single great idea.

Good ideas, new ideas, revolutionary ideas are the result of looking at things differently than before. But to become real and valuable, good ideas must be followed by other good ideas. Even better, when a habit of looking at how things might be better emerges, value and improvement become a pattern rather than a rarity.

One of my favorite contributors to A Deliberate Pause is Robert Egger, founder of multiple successful ventures including DC Central Kitchen. When I spoke to him recently about his point of view on what moves the world forward, he emphasized this concept of the need to perpetually step back and consider ‘what could be,' even when there doesn't seem to be any problem with ‘what is.' That's where good ideas, new and innovative ideas emerge most often, in those moments of pausing to step back and see things differently.

To make his point, Robert drew on the story of the generation-long effort by the Greeks to get their queen back from the Trojans who had kidnapped her. This ancient tale is worth revisiting to make a contemporary point.

It's helpful to begin by recalling what the Greeks wanted to accomplish in the first place: to retrieve their queen. It seems obvious, but somewhere along the way the Greeks seemed to have forgotten the point and became more fixated on the idea for achieving their goal. The idea was simple and obvious: take our powerful military might across the sea and lay siege to Troy. The Greeks clearly thought this was a no-brainer and that Helen would be back in the arms of her king in no time. No time, however, quickly turned into lots of time, years in fact.

For a generation the Greeks used everything they had to lay siege to Troy - spears and crossbows, siege towers and catapults - but the enemy was having none of it and held tight. The original strategy idea on its own was not enough to achieve the goal.

What broke the log jam was a new idea, a new way of looking at what was right before their eyes and seeing a better way. As Robert put it, "Somebody finally looked around at all that wood they were using - for spears, arrows, and bonfires - and said, ‘Now how can we look at this differently?' Not too long after, a towering wooden horse appeared on the doorstep of the Trojans fortress. The course of history was changed forever."

The ideas we remember and hail, the ones that become real and produce value, do so because they are joined by other ideas. New ideas are not only going to keep coming, they must, if we are going to progress. The opportunity is there, everyday, to pause and see something different in the very things we look at day-in and day-out, the very things we assume to be fixed, unchangeable, or just fine.

A horse of a very different color (or shape, or size, or construction) awaits you and all you have to be willing to do is look for it.

Larry Robertson
Author, A Deliberate Pause
Book website: http://www.adeliberatepause.com/

Watch 'What's Next?' the cool 2 minute Book trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ADeliberatePause
(Be sure to TURN UP the volume before viewing!)

Founder, Lighthouse Consulting
(703) 812-0337
larry@lighthouse-consulting.com
http://www.lighthouse-consulting.com/