Mirage

Mirage

Sunday morning date and we just returned from the movie “The Artist”. For those of you who have not seen it, it was worth the matinee price and you should stop reading now because you’ll be mighty ticked off if you have to spend hard earned money after reading this. Oh, and not to give too much away that you have not already read, but the dog will win the Oscar.

I could not help but think about KODAK during the entire film. The company that made the movie industry has gone the same way as the protagonist in the film, except they aren’t dancing right now. That then got me thinking about why a company that has almost a century of successes would blow it so badly when the digital age showed itself on the horizon a couple of decades ago…which further got me thinking about all the other countries, corporations, institutions and individuals that mistook truth for a mirage. Human nature continues to be a trip and my favorite hobby.

From Chernobyl to 911 on to the Quadra-annual American Memory Test currently underway; humans are always filtering information in a manner that will make the most ridiculous seeming observations make some sense. They will then gather others to report their findings and either “nuke it” or “stick their heads in the sand” until something “happens” and then if the resulting data conflicts with the original report, point and blame until it evaporates into the next crisis.  Jeez isn’t our presence in the middle east based on a mirage?.....................(with a wee little nudge from Halliburton?)

I have witnessed it in countries, large corporations, small businesses, it most certainly occurs in families, yet always begins with individuals.  I am an eternal optimist and hopeless romantic. Sure, even in the days when I’d bark and growl, I always felt that all would be well in the end and good would always triumph. For instance, I refused to believe my teenage daughter was “into boys”, because it just did not compute with the template image of the 4 year old that remained in my brain despite the dozen years that had transpired. Mirage.

I built a career fixing the mistakes of others knowing full well that there was a reason others had not been successful with a particular client/project yet I’d forge ahead knowing that with my “superior powers” , success was imminent and the crowds would applaud ………………fade to black.   

Success was not always imminent, crowds did not always applaud and in many instances I’d become another on the list of past consultants because some owners/projects freaked out as their “dreams” actually happened. It took a long time but I finally took off my own glasses and put theirs on. They just wanted a project…….. NOT a finished project and certainly not one that housed their “dreams”. This was a mind blower!

 This leads me back to the movie, and voice. We have a saying in our family about “watching where the feet go”.  Anyone can say anything verbally/written, softly, loudly, with conviction or apathy, but, where are their feet going?  Professing to want this or needing that or not caring or opening deeply into vulnerable places or even expounding on dreams are the equivalent of a verbal mirage IF the feet aren’t stepping in the direction of the voice.   It’s tricky for a guy like me because I WANT to believe that what I “hear” is the truth and generally already have my shoes on before the sentences are finished to go and “help”………………..(particularly where dreams are concerned.)  

Lately I’m trying a different tact. Be it National Elections, Companies I am interested in doing business with or individuals I would like to know a bit more, I’ll now wait a bit to put my shoes on and just watch where their feet go for awhile. Then adjust accordingly because more often than not, it was only a mirage.