Poke the Box

Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn’t do. If you lived in that world, what would you do? Go. Do that.

The new system, then, the one embraced by the new Ford and by so many other organizations, is to use the stable, productive business platform we’ve developed to produce things, and continue to build projects on that platform. The new system doesn’t consume oil or electricity on an assembly line; it thrives on innovation. Call it a project line. The

Kinds of capital What can you invest? What can your company invest?

The difference is that the creative person is satisfied once he sees how it’s done. The initiator won’t rest until he does it.

Identifying the “fear of go” is the first step on the road to making the fear go away. If you can embrace the idea that your success and happiness are tied up in defeating the fear that’s holding you back, you’re 90 percent of the way to where you need to go,

Initiative is a little like creativity in that both require curiosity. Not the search for the “right” answer, as much as an insatiable desire to understand how something works and how it might work better.

The relentless act of invention and innovation and initiative is the best marketing asset. To be really clear I’m not encouraging you to be bold and right. I’m not encouraging you to figure out how to always initiate a smart and proven and profitable idea. I’m merely encouraging you to start. Often. Forever. Be the one who starts things.

There will be other jobs, better jobs, bosses more willing to create growth. The only way you will find those jobs and those bosses, though, is to have a personal standard that demands failure, not one that guarantees success. Intellectual integrity goes beyond being clever—it requires that you put your ideas into the world.

Poking doesn’t mean right. It means action.