Perspective

I didn’t intend to take so long a break from writing. A couple of days turned into a week which turned into a month and then suddenly, here we are. Fifty days later.

Which is also how businesses lose their way. Not dramatically. Or explosively. But moment by moment. Drop by drop. Without the benefit of audible warning. A self-imposed short-coming. There being few organizations that offer incentives to the dissenting voice.

I had excuses. A very large client and a demanding brief. One that challenged and stimulated in equal measure. The very best kind of work.

As a business we emerged from the last couple of months with a clearer sense of our own Purpose. To unlock the potential of creative businesses of any size. From multi-national enterprises - our most recent client - to single-owner entrepreneurs.

And over the last couple of months we have been reminded of a simple truth when it comes to building successful businesses.

Size matters.

For big companies, the trick is to use it without being slowed by it. A balance most have not yet achieved.

For small companies, the trick is inverted. Which is to think big. While taking advantage of one of the great advantages of being an entrepreneur. The freedom to act.

An advantage that many throw away.

I will be talking a lot more about building organizations that unlock the value of creativity over the next few months. I hope you’ll pass the word to those you think will be interested. And I hope to see you here 2-3 times a week, regardless of what else I’m up to.

For those of you that have written to me over the last couple of weeks asking me to get back to writing regularly, thank you for your interest.

And your push.

On a very personal note, a very dear friend of ours, Heather Guillen and her husband Tom, suffered the tragedy of losing their prematurely born son Tommy, last Saturday.

Heather writes a blog called Poor Lucky Me. She has continued to write it during the trauma she and Tom are now living through. It is one of the most human and raw accounts of life I have ever encountered. And it has changed my perspective about a lot of things in the days since I heard their terrible news.

I have no wisdom to account for a loss so complete that every breath must now be a deliberated choice.

But I know that Tommy has changed my life.

And for that I will always be grateful to him.