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Saturday, December 22, 2007

"I have no idea where I am going"

"By faith, Abraham left; not knowing where he was going."
-Hebrews 11:8


"The congregation can handle not knowing where they're going if they know why they're going"

-Erwin McManus, "An Unstoppable Force."

"'Strategy' is essentially about 'knowin' where you're goin.' Not, mostly, a bad idea; though with today's market gyrations - and market gyration velocity - that's increasingly difficult to do, a chimera, a distraction even. For me, 'knowin' who you're goin' with' tops the list of imperatives in a world of whitewater, and knowin' that those you're goin' with share your passion and determination - and the flexibility of mind to adjust and adjust and adjust on a dime. All of which is to say I'm not, and never have been, a champion of the management school of thought that says, or implies, 'Get the strategy right (big word, 'right'!), and the rest, as in all good things, will more or less automatically follow.' In fact I think such a view - admittedly not as prevalent today as it used to be, in the wake of everything from huge bankruptcies to 9/11 - is total crap."
-Tom Peters, quoted by Mike Todd


"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
- Thomas Merton Thoughts in Solitude, quoted in Brian Dodd

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