So today is the 29th Feb.
Leap year.
My friend Michael was born on Feb 29th about 36 odd years ago [I think] so by purist terms, he’s actually only about 9 … which, coincidentally, matches his mental age perfectly.
But here’s the thing, sometimes being ‘correct’ doesn’t mean you’re ‘right’.
What I mean is that I come across some planners who seem so obsessed with being seen as ‘correct’ that they miss the beauty and energy of the situation.
The perceived truth rather than the intellectual truth.
The grey area rather than the black or white area.
The emotional perspective rather than the rational.
Making sense and being right are not always the same thing and yet I know planners whose soul objective is to be pedantically right.
Of course, part of that is because our discipline has become a battlefield of intelligence wankdom – and while I would never devalue the importance of being clever – approaching work with the attitude that you are judge, jury and executioner ultimately leads to nowhere, especially when you end up so blinkered you can’t see how to make the bigger opportunity move forward.
Be authentic. Be true. But to paraphrase Lucille Ball, it’s important to remember that being correct and being right aren’t always the same thing.