Introduction to Mischief
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A few years ago in South Florida in a restaurant near the beach, I met a woman named MK Marsden. It wasn’t a chance meeting. We had been introduced by a shared friend from the travel industry that thought we should know one another. She was as different from me as it was possible to be, truly in most every way, but there was a strange camaraderie that emerged and three years later, we are still friends and business colleagues.
She introduced me to a new term that day – MISCHIEF
Most are familiar with destructive mischief
We have each had the experience of walking into the room shown above, toilet paper everywhere and the cat, clearly blaming the dog. Mischief at its finest.
After 25 years of starting, investing, building and advising companies in many different countries, we have both experienced and observed a lot of business mischief, so while the term hadn’t been one that I had ever used in a business conversation, it totally resonated with me.
From leaders who cannot set direction or make decisions; to innovations that have no clear purpose or defined market; financials structures that constrain the growth of the business and dysfunctional teams that stifle innovation.
Wow, with that introduction you might think mischief is only negative. Ah, but that is not the case.
Mischief can be positive
Mischief can be powerful and when guided it creates magical outcomes in business and company cultures and on your clients, partners and teams. Mischief includes curiosity, a unique way of solving a problem, building a market, launching an idea.
Companies that are disrupting their industries are full of delicious mischief and enjoy extraordinary growth. Oh, and they are also capital magnets.
Over the next few days we are going to look at the mischief and myths in marketing and business. We are going to tease out new ways of thinking, innovating, building your business, your market and your company culture.
We are going to measure the impact, so you can see the power mischief has both positive and negative in your business.
Join us in the dialogue. Look at your own mischief let’s eliminate the barriers accelerate the growth of your ideas so your business can flourish.
Stay tuned, and make sure that you know where the cat and the dog are….
