Comments

Respectfully I accept your disagreement, we are in principle agreed.

I come across indifference daily in my role and in many organisations and in many places I least expect to find it. Your right give it your all, I believe that, be better than you ever imagined yourself to be, challenge everything, yes a 1000 times yes. But a moment of indiference, a moment to stop, a moment to check the flowers at our feet whilst reaching for the stars, a moment to gain the right perspective even if that includes indifference is a must to get to an integrated set of thought and actions. So I aceept the do mentality but I also need a think and do mentality also.

Just to try, well at least once, to out quote on the happiness front

"Happiness comes uninvited the moment you are concious you are happy you are no longer happy" E. DeBono I believe.

Have the best of days being the best you can possibly be enabling those around you to be better than they ever thought they could be.

Respectfully with you just not 100% but probably 99.9%. Is that failure!

Patrick

Posted by patrick at April 10, 2007 9:37 AM

Patrick, let me be a literalist for a moment. Spring seems a long way away, as we experience our 4th consecutive day of snow here in Vermont. However the tulips are popping through the snow. Moreover, the storm has halted birds amidst their Northern migration--I'm literally going through pounds of bird food at our many feeders every day.

Nothing, literally, gives me more pleasure than the flowers and the birds. They are a matter of anything but indifference. Hence, which does not at all negate your argument, one can be in "shock & awe" of the world around us--and eschew indiffernce "100% of the time"?

Posted by tom peters at April 10, 2007 10:22 AM

Wow. This is why I read your blog-- what a great entry. I believe that passion (and loving what you do, no matter what it is) is everything in life!
best,
surya

Posted by surya at April 10, 2007 10:29 AM

Tom at the hands of your literary mastery and as I look out over the very flat but lush green fields of Lincolnshire, the cows at the end of the Garden have yet to materialise, the wisteria is full of white blossom reminding me of the lack of snow we have had, the odd dadffodil pokes its head fromm bulbs planted way too late, I am but an amateur.

However, maybe its not indifference I am challenging here, I know about the Zen and puttinng stripes on my lawn, and the time it gives me to reflect and ponder and catch the great ideas in my subconcious mind. But in that 'shock and awe' moment there is an element of STOP, and element of think and element where there is no emotional attatchment that a word like indifference conjours and is doing so here. For me no matter how small that STOP no matter how I phrase it for me it works, having taken a string of mobile calls today in my garden to spring bird song, isn't the fact that indifference is so often defeated that has enabled me to have my brief moments of work and pleasure and still the occasional moment to STOP is a true testimony to indifference being defeated by technology enabled discussion like this.

I am with you and I will strive to reach my 100%, have a lovely day, I am now off to talk nonsense to my two week old and third daughter, Niamh (Neave)

Patrick

Posted by patrick at April 10, 2007 10:48 AM

Ah - has the Greek influence come from your Manchester session with Charles Handy?

I was talking with him at the end of Feb about leadership - and the idea of eudaimonia as the essence of leadership - ie to create the climate where others can flourish.

With the other aspects of 21st century leadership - the leader of who I am rather than what I am (positional) perhaps it is the meaningful blend of the clear task and the deeper people side which will bring the more sustainable organisational benefits? Certainly resonates with my coaching clients

Cheers

Steve

Posted by Steve Gorton at April 10, 2007 11:30 AM

". . . if your goal is stupefaction on the job, it'll spread like a virus—even to home life."

Yes, yes, yes. For many reasons, including fear and feeling overwhelmed, I went through a period of (seeming) indifference to my work as a new business owner. (I say "seeming" because the root of indifference can be many things - for me it was fear of the unknown, fear of failing with a new business, and maybe fear of succeeding with a new business.) Almost immediately, that indifference - or lack of engagement - seeped into all areas of my life, and I knew right then that I needed to get over whatever was holding me back.

Posted by Tracy at April 10, 2007 11:56 AM

Hey Tom... you left off one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite philosophers:

I prefer bold failures to mediocre successes
-Tom Peters

JH
(excelling in mediocrity since 1969)

Posted by james hathaway at April 10, 2007 1:11 PM

Researching excellence, and specifically examples of service excellence, I thought I'd see what ideas I might glean from your recent writings, and some of your recent presentations.

I checked your presentation for Johns Hopkins. As I worked through it, I smiled at some of the quotes, got good chills from others, stopped thoughtfully by some of the statistics...and then threw back my head and laughed at the quote about "skidding across the finish line" when one dies, "all used up...yelling, Geronimo!" My brother died suddenly almost two years ago, and the only good thing that can be said about the end of his life is that when he left he was essentially yelling his version of 'Geronimo!'" on his way out the door. Wonderful guy. Too short a life - but one fully lived, yes. He left no extra life lying around, wasted, on the floor, that is for certain.

Posted by Jan Richards at April 10, 2007 7:05 PM

Tom is always talking about action. Here a quotation from Aristotle that seems to fit. "Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way . . . you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."

Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that Aristotle would agree we acquire full engagement by constantly acting?

Posted by Shular Scudamore at April 10, 2007 9:39 PM

"He left no extra life lying around"--Jan, what a wonderful tribute!

Posted by tom peters at April 11, 2007 2:17 AM

Shular, I have long believed (and was taught and explored the research at the PhD level) that we act our way int thinking rather than think our way into acting.

Posted by tom peters at April 11, 2007 2:19 AM

Patrick - there was another posting recently about purpose and you might like to take a look at it. I think it's something that links to indifference. I was quick to point out that lots of folk won't identify with lofty mission statements and they simply want to turn up, work and go home. I see plenty of that but what I won't accept is indifference. Even if you've only turned up to collect a pay cheque, you've got an obligation to yourself, your colleagues and your customers to do a decent job.

BTW, I've always found that idea, "...the moment you are concious you are happy you are no longer happy.." to be arrant nonsense. It's a joyous, life re-affirming moment and one to be treasured.

Posted by Mark JF at April 11, 2007 2:21 AM

Mark JF: "you've got an obligation to yourself"--frankly, this is exactly where it begins, I think. (I've often said about my seminars, "My first duty is to entertain myself." Sounds awful, but it's true--to be "on" I've got to be excited-as-hell just to be on stage, or wherever.)

Posted by tom peters at April 11, 2007 5:15 AM

...if i were indifferent even for a second, i have killed the essence of being a human being.

excellence. always... to me then is a way of being true to oneself at all times.

i realize that when my turn comes to fail (die!) the people around me will not miss the body, for it will still be there. they would miss the way i weilded the gift of life. anything less than EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS!!! does not make the cut.

Posted by Sathish Selvakumar at April 12, 2007 2:34 AM

Indifference... Excellence... Indifference to Excellence!!! Well, I am sad to note that this is how we are likely to do even when we see or experience EXCELLENCE. I am talking about the Joshua Bell experiment by Washington Post. I believe some of us have been robbed of our ability to see or experience excellence. What can we do to regain it?

Posted by Mohit Bhushan at April 16, 2007 9:48 AM