While creative people have a proclivity for generalist tendencies that allow them to explore the new and the different, most will select a path of deep expertise once it is shown to them and they have experienced the benefits. Without that experience, not all will be convinced to join us on our journey.

The culture of tolerance and inclusiveness that we’ve always had in our firm still applies, but now it applies only to those willing to pull their weight. When we choose to follow the twelve proclamations and make the transition from order-taker to expert, we commit to the idea that perpetual learning and continuous improvement are mandatory. Everyone involved in our enterprise must buy in, pull his weight and push the rest of us as we push him. Those who do not will be shepherded on to other firms where the collective desire to realize potential is more in line with their own.

The One Who Eddied Out

We know the principal who eddied out—the owner of the creative firm who enjoyed early success for many years only to have that success leave him for good. He started on his own during good economic times or with one large benefactor client and he rode that current for years. Then things changed. The economy turned or the client moved on and the principal’s easy success vanished.

For years now he sits wondering what went wrong. What did he do to deserve such misfortune? What he cannot, or will not, see is that his misfortune is rooted in his early success. He was not forced to make the difficult decisions early, so when faced with them late he remained certain that the decisions and the effort could be avoided, and success could be had the old way once again. Now clients no longer beat a path to his door, and he blames the market or he laments that times have changed in a manner he cannot comprehend, for reasons he cannot see.

As others move past him, making the brave decisions and doing the difficult work, he remains, with his reminiscent stare, bobbing in the calm at the side. He stays there for us, as a reminder of what we will become if we ever stop learning, if we ever give up the race.

~ wwp ~