Not There Yet

Oh how hard it is to let go of the notion of the box. Poking around the internet a few days ago, I came across this on prweb.com. The headline read:

Platinum Funding Group Announces 'Thinking Outside The Box' Networking Series. The networking initiative aims to stimulate out of the box thinking and foster deal-making among leaders of the financial community.

The Platinum Funding Group is a company that deals in the factoring of accounts receivables (financing that turns receivables into cash). It may be the kind of business, that many would say operates squarely in the box. Think about it. "Receivables have to be handled in a certain way because they have always been handled in a certain way. No need for innovation here. Not really a lot you can do with them anyway, right?" Unfortunately, the same rationale, as unproven or simply wrong as it may be, is too often offered for almost every function of a business. The box is very pervasive.

Thinking out of the box for these folks might seem like a giant step, and we heartily applaud them for getting it started. We also want to suggest that their mere "out of the box thinking" acknowledges that there still is a box waiting to seduce them back in. when this networking initiative is finished or runs out of steam.

It is relatively easy to occasionally stretch your brain muscles and think outside the box in the short term. But it takes much more to cast the box aside entirely and refuse to let it ever entrap you again. And that is precisely what you and the Platinum Funding Group must be willing to do, to have a chance of producing real, long term, sustainable growth in the crazy world we all must compete in today.

Steve