A tweet early Saturday morning mentioned actress Jill Clayburgh had died the day before. I'll admit when a celebrity death hits Twitter, I usually search for an article to get a little more background on the person and their life.
The first Jill Clayburgh obituary story included a 2005 quote from her on the real "planning" behind a typical actor's career:
"One of the funny things about actors is that people look at their careers in retrospect, as if they have a plan. Mostly, you just get a call. You're just sitting there going, 'Oh, my God. I'm never going to work again. Oh, God. I'm too old. Maybe I should go and work for Howard Dean.' And then it changes."
There are the seeds of an important strategic lesson in there: It's great to have a plan ahead of time, but often you don't have a very formal one. Plus things happen which have nothing to do with the plan or anything which was considered. So even if you aren't able to draw a smooth, strategic line to anticipate what will happen to you ahead of it happening, at least be able to draw the line and shape a strategic story after the fact.
Find the connections you would have liked to have seen ahead of time. Learn what you can from this hindsight-based strategic view, and apply it to what's in front of you...then maybe you will be better able to plan out what's coming up in your future.
My reflection on the "it's okay to figure out the strategic picture afterward" idea probably stems from today being the third anniversary of starting to write the Brainzooming blog's forerunner.
While the blog was originally written as a creative outlet beyond the corporate world, there was certainly some forethought to wanting to build and document the learnings and tools emerging from the strategy and innovation work I was doing.
I must admit though, if the blog had been started considering the possibility of it being an integral part of a business-building effort one day, some things would have been done differently. But then again, all that thinking probably would have gotten in the way of ever getting started.
The net of it all? It's been 3 years of content creation I wouldn't ever have wanted to miss!
Thanks for hanging out with me here! And please do me a favor: if you're getting value from the Brainzooming blog, share it with a few people you know who might also benefit. We're always looking for more readers! – Mike Brown
The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your brand strategy and implementation efforts.
