Are You On The Right Course?

Posted on August 11, 2008

Being on the right course is one of those things that can keep us CEOs awake at night. But unplugging every now and then can focus our minds on what aspects of what we do really make the biggest difference for the people around us.

Are you on the right course?

What do I mean? I could mean all of the answers — are you focusing on the right things at the office this week? Is your plan to deal with your current headache right? Or I could mean your company strategy, or your three-year company plan, or even your career choice. Being on the right course is one of those things that can keep us CEOs awake at night.

I thought about that a lot while on vacation in Italy for two weeks at the end of June with my wife and two children. I went cold turkey from e-mail and cell phone, and didn’t check it at all for 12 days.

In Rome, I saw the busts of great emperors and popes who were incredibly powerful and important in their day, but now, thousands of years later they were just another statue, unknown but for the name placard. Their homes have long since crumbled except for a few, who are crumbling. Yet in the days before I left for vacation, my e-mails and projects seemed so important. But in a thousand years, or even in five years, what would they really mean? So why did I need to be so wound up about it all?

I was reading Dune again, and a few of the Asimov Foundation novels, which talk about the future of the human race in spans of thousands of years, and kings and rulers flitting in and out of existence. What a contrast to the daily business details we all sweat over. Admittedly, it is fiction, but still, the time off and my experience during that time was giving me perspective over my day to day work.

I forgot which jet lagged night during which I was awake that I asked myself if in the annals of history what I do in my day to day life would ever be remembered, or have any lasting impact?

That’s when I knew I was thinking about this way too deeply. A sculpture of my head will not likely ever be a tourist attraction, but it did focus my mind on what aspects of what I do really make the biggest difference for the people around me in my lifetime. That includes my wife and kids, my friends, my clients, and their employees.