Here We Are. But, How the Heck Did We Get Here?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours.” What do we prepare for? Is it the hereafter? A sure lot of it goes into doing our taxes. And, of course, there’s the exams, job interviews or the hopefully never to be rainy day. Why also, are we so habitual in our routines? So much so, that it appears out pets can read our minds when, in reality, they are more aware of our habits and routines than we are because they’re better observers of the human condition. Have you asked yourself if you are ever really retrospective enough? Or, do we just save retrospection for funerals, tragic aftermaths and get-togethers where reminiscing is naturally rampant? Today’s new word for retrospection is reflection. Are we all spending too much time reflecting on the coulda’, woulda’, shoulda’ episodes of our lives?

And, why is our genius, according to Emerson who lived a long time ago, contracted so much so as to only be perhaps a few measly hours in length? His genius seems to still fill volumes and continue to inspire people like me who think about these kinds of things. Was his generation and those of his time smarter than us? Or, did they just possess more common sense? We’re smarter than we believe we are aren’t we? Or, is that one of the problems that plagues us? The inimitable and ubiquitous author of Murphy’s Laws said that common sense wasn’t common. According to www.murphys-laws.com, a website dedicated to the business and cultural phenomena known as Murphy’s Law. Murphy, who coined the phrase, if anything can go wrong, it will, was Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981. Someone on the project team obviously thought the captain’s observations of the challenges of the project were auspicious enough, if not brilliant enough to record for posterity. The rest is history.

Maybe, we all have lots of brilliant moments but no one is around to appreciate, record and share them. Or, maybe they really didn’t add up to as genius-worthy as we’d like to think in retrospect.

With all of the above in mind, do we prepare ourselves for, or are we as aware of perhaps other moments of genius that we’re not fully aware of? Moments, that could be described as butterfly moments in our day-to-day experiences? A butterfly moment, at least to me, is one where, if we hadn’t answered the phone, we would have missed the job offer. Because we missed the job offer, we never worked for the person who lived across the street from the person we would have never met and would have never married.

If we remain in our routines, when do we ever find the time for retrospection? Do we really need the time to remember where we’ve been, as much as, is this where we thought we’d end up? What does any of this have to do with a blog about marketing? A lot I think. What’s the difference between the two? We prepare for success in life and in business. Yet, we become mundane and trapped in our routine manner of running things. Hindsight is as close to retrospection as we’ll ever get. It offers us the opportunity to realize whether we’ve been part or parcel to a moment of genius, or one of humbling stupidity. Perhaps the wise old turtle in the Kung Fu Panda movie can offer us a bit of wisdom and, more importantly, clarity. Oogway said that movie’s main character, Po the panda would never fulfill his destiny until he let go of the illusion of control.

Is control an illusion? I’ve always believed that marketing offers businesses a sense or method of control allowing for the origination of marketplace changes while, at the same time, determining the best way to deal with change in the marketplace. How many businesses, as Master Oogway would have put it, meet their destiny on the road taken to avoid it? I’ve been trying to synthesize what I truly believe marketing is to my students every time I step foot in the classroom. One of the discoveries I’ve made in retrospect is that, yes, and the solution to a problem can sometimes be as simple as the problem itself. Not all problems are difficult. And, not every difficult problem requires a difficult solution.

At this point in my life and here, in this blog, I believe that as Shakespeare wrote, “We know what we are, but know not what we may be” is what is hampering the output of those moments of genius. We may simply be paying too much attention to the preparation of what it is we know needs to be done. Does it feel right? Is this what our customers have demonstrated they really want, or not? Is it the correct thing to do? The routine is important.

Routines are systems. But, a mindless routine offers no time to step back and see the affects of our labors. On the other hand, retrospection is more than a post mortem, or a scorecard. It is, hopefully more than, “a tale; told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing,” as Shakespeare’s Macbeth believed. So, here I am. But, how the heck did I get here? I’ll reflect on that and get back to you…