I was reading Business 2.0 and there was some interesting thoughts.
Anthony Zuiker, the executive producer of CSI, talks about other shows trying to “knockoff” their labs and forensics, but he said they’ve “held true” to who they are. “You need to evolve, but you don’t need to evolve defensively. That’s a classic mistake.”
I think we need to be careful not to become defensive or reactive. We’ve got to know who we’re not and who we are. We’ve got to stay true to ourselves. That is the challenge every individual and every organization faces.
Bill Gates does “reading weeks” to stay on the edge of innovation. “Twice a year I take a week to do nothing but read.” I’ve love to take a three-day reading vacation in 2005.
Prince asks an interesting question that isn’t limited to the music industry. I think it’s a question for ministry as well. “Do eye really have something 2 say or am eye just trying 2 get famous.” He says, “Do something NEW…say something that has NEVER been said b4.” That is at the core of my passion mix–I love the challenge of saying ancient things in postmodern ways. I look making the really old seem really new. That is the incarnation of communication.
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, uses a phrase that I’d never seen used besides in my own writing and thinking–divine discontent. He is “constantly fidding” with Amazon to make it better. “On Saturday mornings, I stay playing around with the site and make a list of 10 things that are wrong, and then come in Monday morning and work on fixing them. That divine discontent leads to invention and makes things better.”