Today’s blog is a preview of the TiE Rockies “Business for Breakfast” talk I’m giving this Friday. You still have time to sign up by going to my events page.
We all have psychic pack-rat places in our lives. We consciously or unconsciously hold on to negative experiences longer than need be. Think of the impact of divorces, bankruptcies, failed business relationships and the like. Those memories weigh us down and keep us from being present and at our best with clients.
My way to understand this liminal dimension is to call these experiences “myths.” From one side of this dimension, one cannot distinguish myth from reality. They appear to be a seamless whole. Once one passes through that liminal dimension, it’s clear that the myth robs life. It is like the experience of the person losing weight who remarks how much easier it is to breathe or climb stairs.
One myth that needs busting is:
Every company needs to have a vision and mission.
Why is this a myth? Many of us who have come from large companies have become cynical, perhaps even bearing the battle-scars of miscast, misappropriated vision and mission statements. We are used to seeing them on the walls and websites of those companies, knowing that employees give lip service at worst. At best, leaders so embody the vision that employees are left to wonder if those leaders have a life. Some companies take as de rigueur the sacrifice of marriages and families for the sake of that vision.
What is on the other side of this liminal dimension of vision and mission?
Every company must be owned by her vision and mission.
A company’s vision and mission is bigger than the founder, the leaders, and the employees. And it must be life-giving.
One of the most powerful visual representations of this myth is the video clip below from The Mission. In it, Robert DeNiro plays Rodrigo Mendoza, a 16th century slave trader of the Guarani natives in Brazil. After being imprisoned for the murder of his brother, Mendoza is sent back to Brazil to serve at a Jesuit mission to the Guanari. In this scene, he carries his armor up a steep cliff to the Guarani compound.
The weight of his load vividly illustrates the heavy burden of armor—the myth, the tools we should drop. Mendoza’s armor symbolizes the myths we consciously or unconsciously live out , that we falsely believe we need to bear.
Like Mendoza, we need forgiveness, a Guarani who will release us from the heavy load of myths. To learn more about this and other myths you need to bust, come to theTiE Rockies “Business for Breakfast” this Friday—click here to sign up for this complementary event. Bring your most pernicious myth and as a group, we’ll bust it together!
To give you some inspiration, here are some other myths you might bring:
- “Top line growth is always better.”
- “If you own a business, you must be on 24/7”
- “No one can raise money/develop software/meet client needs as well as I can”
- “I’m saving money by doing [fill in this blank] myself”
Toolkit:
1. There is still room at this Friday’s complimentary event for you to uncover other myths that bind up your time and keep your from optimal productivity.
2. Pay attention to times when you feel drained, overwhelmed, or stuck. What is your being trying to tell you about other myths you need to bust?
3. If you’d like some aural beauty in your life, check out this rendition of “The Oboe” by virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma (Or, “Ma-Ma Yo” to my daughter, Grace, when she was 8).
