The end of the week has brought us to another Foodie Friday. Unfortunately, it’s not really a fun Friday this time. I spent the night with a nasty case of excess acidity inflaming my esophagus. That’s unusual for me since I’ve always fancied myself to have a bit of an iron gut. Still, the burning was real and uncomfortable but it did get me thinking.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Stomach acid is a normal, critical part of our digestive systems. For many folks, certain foods trigger excess stomach acid which finds its way back up. Tomato sauce is one of those foods and although I’ve never had an issue before it was part of my dinner last evening so maybe that was it. Whatever it was that triggered it, something that was normal and necessary had gone to an extreme and was now a detriment. Which is, of course, the business thought today.
Think of someone you know in business who is really smart. My guess is that they are also kind of impatient. They grasp things faster than many people and it seems to take them a concentrated effort to be patient while the rest of the team catches on. Take a boss who tries to be supportive of his folks but lets them cross over into being slackers. Those two examples are of good qualities – intelligence and supportiveness – which have gone to an extreme and turned into something detrimental – impatience and sloppiness. Like my digestive system last night, they require immediate action to rein them back to normal before real damage is done.
It’s great to be forceful but bad to cross the line into badgering. It’s fine to emphasize strategy but when you overdo it and upset the balance with the real world of execution and operation, you’re hurting the system. I’ll be a bit more careful with my normally wonderful digestion going forward. It’s probably not a bad idea to pay attention to all the good things in your business that might be heading to an extreme before the business requires an antacid. Deal?
Consult Keith 