Cam Beck from ChaosScenario shares an interesting insight:
: Are you in the business you think you are in?
…imagine you’re Wilbur or Orville Wright, who, in addition to running their own bicycle business, decided to take on the “problem of flight,” which included not only successfully flying a heavier-than-air craft under its own power, but also maneuvering in mid-air.
Oh, and due to a general human intolerance to blunt force trauma and impalement, landing alive consistently was another important issue to solve.
But what business were the Wrights in? Weren’t they just bicycle men?
Well, yeah. But they were so much more than that.
They were even more than entrepreneurs or even inventors. They were all of these things.
But chiefly they were problem solvers who, importantly, were not afraid to try, though they might fail.
Ray Croc, the founder of McDonalds restaurants, is famously known for telling an audience that McDonalds was not in the food business, rather the real estate business.
When you take a step back from the day-to-day operation of your business what does it look like? Are you in the “Marketing Business” or are you in the “Relationship Business”?
Can changing a couple of words in the label change the entire meaning and scope of what you do? What might happen if you changed some other labels in your life and work?