Disruption Produces Greatness

All through history, great discoveries, inventions and innovations were conceived in the midst of or immediately following difficulty and calamity. It is a common theme throughout the ages. Ordinary people, placed in the midst of disruption and uncertainty, found their greatness that would never have been imagined. It appears that only after some disruption of “the way things are” that ideas shake loose that couldn’t have been conceived or accepted otherwise. It’s like disruption is preparatory for people to rise to their level of greatness. So I ask you this question: What are you being prepared for?

The Example of Isaac Newton

One notable example is Isaac Newton’s story with the 1665 Great Plague of London. When his education at Trinity College, Cambridge was interrupted during the Great Plague, he moved back home. Rather than lament that it wasn’t fair or hold his breath until he could resume his “business as usual” life, he took a different track. While sequestered at home, he furthered the current understanding of gravity and developed laws of motion. His work in mathematics established the foundation of calculus. From his experimentation with prisms, he developed theories of optics.

What Will Be Your Story?

So here we are, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has significantly disrupted our life as we have known it. Some are still holding their breath for the return of the good ol’ days. Others are in survival mode, just trying to get through each day. A few are still cowering under the covers. But some of your peers and colleagues are imagining a different day, a better day. They are stepping, even stumbling, into their greatness at this very moment.

This is the world to which you and your clients are trying to understand and adapt. There are few answers, but there are lots of experiments and innovations that are being put out there. Are you seeing new ways of interacting and working with your clients that could not have been imagined a few short months ago? Are you presenting ideas and solutions that your clients would never have accepted before? Are there new ways of doing things that make so much more sense now?

The question this week is this: What innovative ideas should you be proposing to solve the problems your clients and your firm are experiencing? In other words, is this what are you being prepared for?