Entrepreneurs: Can Anyone Escape Their Box?
by Miki Saxon
Everybody has a box.
And no matter how hard you try you’ll never really think outside it.
But you don’t have to.
As with most things, the good and bad of boxes rests with how you view them.
It’s not the box that matters, but its size and how you address that.
Steven Spielberg’s box is immense, far larger than most, yet he is constantly enlarging it, as did Steve Jobs.
And therein lays one of the secrets of a creative organization.
It’s not about encouraging your people to “think outside the box,” it’s about helping each to understand his/her own box and how to enlarge it.
Because that’s how it works.
As soon as you step outside your box, a new one forms. Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box, a new one forms and the process begins again.
It takes work, but the process can continue throughout life—although some never start and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.
There will always be a box, but with effort it can be enlarged enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.
Sharing this knowledge with your team and providing a culture in which they are encouraged and helped to expand their box is the hallmark of a great founder.
Flickr image credit: Mr. T in DC
