Mixing Past and Present

As a retired person I have time to think. And I do. At times, however, past and present mingle in ways that suggest no passage of time.

I caught myself the other day telling another the price I paid for lodging and restaurant fare in the same locale he mentioned, only to find out later I was quoting prices from 1984. You see the problem!

Another example is the technology application selected to address a current business problem. I found my conversant with an odd expression on his face. He later kindly pointed out that his cell phone does what I had told him his computer would do. My mind had anchored on 1998 circumstances and we were discussing 2015 conditions.

Somewhat embarrassing. I know. When I have taken the time to reflect on these awkward moments I find myself finding the gold in such situations. Here’s one.

A group of retired businessmen are talking about an all-volunteer organization they serve in common. They dissect and analyze the operational problems based on their experience of pre-retirement corporate America. They wonder why people don’t do as they are asked, or exhibit initiative and reinvent programs so they are more effective. They look for program ownership from their fellow volunteers. And then they grumble about the state of the nation and the lack of commitment among their peers.

I speak up mildly – ‘But it’s not the same thing; you talk of volunteers as salaried professionals.’

That stopped the discussion cold. In one second. And then I meekly point out that volunteers do what they want, when they want, and invent their own mission and vision that is only somewhat related to the current organization’s reason for being. The challenge is to pull the volunteers together with a common mission and vision and enlist them to support programs as one to build success for the organization.

I know this may seem natural to you, but to them it was novel. They had forgotten we were all retired. Now the big thing that matters is – is this something I believe in and have a passion for? If so, count me in!

The funny thing is our common organization is SCORE, a national volunteer entity devoted to helping entrepreneurs start up new businesses and/or improve and grow existing small businesses. We do this because small businesses are the traditional engine for economic growth throughout our country. In small towns and large, small businesses invent new products, new technologies, new services and exciting new visions of what will become new business standards. Big corporations have the money and talent to do all of this, but they tend to lose the inventive spirit in bureaucracy. Who gets credit for the work and earns the bonus? And the career advancement? Remember those battles? They were always with us.

Now envision the small business in which innovation is the life blood of the organization. It is the pulse of the firm, the driver of excitement and purpose. Everyone gets behind the idea and helps create the newest of new. Then the challenge is how to use it in new and old applications. Who can help us with this ticklish assignment without losing ownership of our new idea?

This is the opportunity each of us has in SCORE. Listen to the entrepreneur. Protect his privacy and innovation. Help him develop the means to launch the idea successfully so he can build it into a lasting business with a creative arc all its own. Innovation needs nurture. It requires freedom in which to grow and prosper as well. And it needs sensitive ears and minds to nourish entrepreneurs to fruitful adoption of processes and expertise to bring the new product to market.

The mindset needed to perform such magic is buried in each of us. Sometimes our bureaucratic experience bars us from seeing a way forward. Working with entrepreneurial genius may just unlock our own genius.

That’s one of the things I’ve discovered in SCORE. As clients come to us for help we view with fresh ideas the genius that made America what she is. Individual initiative and creativity invents fresh futures. Harnessing the old experienced minds and souls now retired gives fresh life and vitality. Another form of genius emerges.

And then it hits the market to make its own history.

Mixing past and present helps build transition pathways forward. Reinventing ourselves is the result. That gives us fresh life. And purpose.

Such is the reward of this work!

October 29, 2015

PS Let us not forget that ‘he’ is more often a ‘she’. Women are increasingly the drivers of small businesses while men gravitate to the larger organizations.