Thursday, July 17, 2008

Gotta dig down to build up

Great ideas are like great buildings: they never simply 'sit' on the landscape.

A well-grounded building has to go down before it can go up. The building above is one I've had some involvement with over the last few years. And as any engineer knows, a lot of work goes into securing the base of a building before anyone even starts thinking about going 'up'.

Anyone can generate shallow ideas that appear impressive on the surface, but that aren't grounded well. Any idea that plans to endure in the marketplace has to go deep first.

It seems sadly common to see people building great edifices of ideas on the flimsiest foundations. It pays to dig well first, and to see what it really is that we intend to build on.

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