Dimly Lit

One thing that I’ve been trying to come to grips with lately is the fact that I am in the corporate world. Not that I’m stuck here permanently or anything, but that is where I am and that is where I’ve been for almost a decade. I’ve spent far too much of that time pretending that this is just a short-term thing and eventually I’m going to either go back to school to be a pastor/teacher/writer/whatever.

The fact is though, that I haven’t gone back to school and as of right now I can’t really imagine going back anytime soon. So it’s time to begin believing that in God’s sovereignty I am, for the foreseeable future, going to be working in the world of ‘business’. That being the case, what do I do now?

I’ve spent some time over the past year trying to acclimate myself to the whole business culture thing. I’ve read Getting Things Done to try and bring some organization to my life. I’ve been reading lots of business articles and blogs, and quite often I come away discouraged because it just feels so dry and Dilbertesque. I feel like a drone.

Recently, however, I’ve come across Tom Peters. He’s kind of a corporate consultant guru that likes to shake up the whole corporate culture. So far, he’s one of the few I’ve read that I really like.

Back in 1992 he published something called “Getting Lucky” (pdf) that I just read. I think in many ways it’s good advise for everyone. Essentially it’s just a list of 50 things you should do in order to “increase the likelihood that you will ‘get lucky’ –in business.”

A few excerpts:

3. Ready. Fire. Aim. (Instead of Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. …)
4. “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”—G.K. Chesterton. You’ve gotta start
somewhere.
18. Listen to everyone. Ideas come from anywhere.
19. Don’t listen to anyone. Trust your inner ear.
20. Get fired. If you’re not pushing hard enough to get fired, you’re not pushing hard enough.
(More than once is okay.)
30. “Repot” yourself every 10 years. (This was the advice of former Stanford Business School
dean Arjay Miller—meaning change careers each decade.)
31. Spend 50 percent of your time with “outsiders.” Distributors and vendors will give you
more ideas in five minutes than another five-hour committee meeting.
32. Spend 50 percent of your “outsider” time with wacko outsiders.
33. Pursue alternative rhythms. Spend a year on a farm, six months working in a factory or
burger shop.
35. Disorganize. Bureaucracy takes care of itself. The boss should be “chief dis-organizer,”
Quad/Graphics CEO Harry Quadracci told us.

He ends with this:

Now write down the opposite of each of the 50. Which set comes closer to your profile?*
In short, loosen up!

I would have to say that I typically am much closer to the opposite list. No wonder my job, and my career feel like such drudgery.

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