After years of thinking I knew it all, (never know too much) today, I heard a new term from a potential client. During my discovery call he said to me and I quote…”Steven, I’ve spent in excess of $ 50,000.00 with on-going consulting, countless educational seminars, webinars and listening to endless industry nameless say…Do it my way, work less, make more, triple your profits by using these secrets, and on and on. My head is ready to explode”. He went on to say that my mind has been filled with ‘Mind Trash’. Hum-mm, I said to myself, ‘Head-Trash’ need to look that one up on my handy internet explorer. So; here is what I found;
Avoid head trash. Don’t be a garbage can for anything that does not feed your intellect, stimulate your imagination or make you a more compassionate peaceful person, Refuse to open your mind to other people’s trash. Tune our anything that promotes conflict or controversy. This can infect you with a mind virus of cynicism or defeat, and you won’t even know it.
While the above does not exactly align with what the gentlemen was telling me, the context is somewhat the same.
After listening to this gentlemen’s story, I questioned myself, how much information is too much information. The fact of the matter is many industry’s such as the landscape industry continually DUMPS information out.
The big question is have we have mind trashed business owners with information they simply do not know how to process or apply to there business? The reality is that more often than none, information learned and thereafter applied at whim as strategy often fails because it does not actually apply to the businesses needs or has been misunderstood, misapplied or possibly poorly on-boarded.
Putting the thoughts of my conversation with this potential client into perspective, In is my opinion that there is a difference between philosophical jargon and applicable or practical knowledge. I actually refer to the later as ‘meat & potatoes’. Meat & Potatoes is something that I see as generally applicable and easily applied to all types of business situations. What’s most important is that business owners must understand that no two businesses are alike. Each one has it’s own uniqueness and applied knowledge and strategy must align. Therefore; information learned but be carefully analyzed to determine does it apply, if so how? how will it work? what are the upsides and downsides of its application and what are the chances of success within our own organization.
In looking for ways to reduce the burden of information overload or ‘head trash’, an individual and an organization must strive to balance both needs and wants. Individuals and business leaders need to ensure that a solution doesn’t simply shift a burden from one group to another, whose shouldering of it will come at a net cost to the organization.
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