Fundamentals

I am very, very guilty of this.  "Think outside of the box."  This is something I strongly believe in, always encourage, regularly practice, and remind others of.  To stay one step ahead, we must always be foreward thinking and beat our competitors to the punch.  Thinking outside the box is one of the key ways to get there before they do.

Having said this, I catch myself LIVING outside the box.  All of a sudden I realize that the creative approach that I took to get there, was a much longer or exhaustive route to take than the norm.  Next thing I know I either got beat getting there, or I'm beat up when I arrive putting me at a disadvantage when taking the next step.

My life in sports from Kindergarden through College, my coaches always harped on fundamentals.  We get lazy, cute, confident, lethargic........and the first thing to go is our fundamentals.  "This is too easy, anyone can do this, I can do this in my sleep, I need to find my own way..........a better way" are common thoughts at some point.  Fundamentals are the practices that you learned and mastered early on, that got you where you are, and that will continue to take you where you want to go.  When you take the fundamentals for granted, you get beat.

We must keep within our fundamentals of business.  Keep doing what we do well, what got us here, and always continue to try to improve on those things.  Thinking outside the box is crucial to improvement.  But don't go so far, or stay so long, that you lose sight of your fundamentals.