30th November:

Human nature is such that it is usually easier to be critical about things and dwell on their faults and shortcomings rather than highlighting the positives. Anyone browsing through previous posts on these pages might feel that your congenial host is especially guilty of crimes against optimism, which is kind of ironic because said author generally considers himself to be a ‘glass half-full’ kind of fellow.

Author and Permission Marketing guru Seth Godin made an interesting point about business, but really about life, on his blog recently – “if you read enough stories, it’s easy to believe that [companies like] Starbucks and Apple….somehow manage to effortlessly create remarkable products and happy customers”. Of course there are, in truth, no perfect companies, no perfect products nor any ideal places to work. Companies like Apple found it tough going for years and still continue to struggle in some ways even today.

The process of engaging in critical intellectual analysis of anything, from popular television to the price of milk, helps us to identify and isolate flaws, which we can then work to minimise or eradicate. And those flaws are always there, buried somewhere. Even Nicole Kidman gets spots.

The feeling that you can’t change the world is often enough to persuade you not to bother trying.

But everything can always be made better.