Aviation of Business

posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on Jul 18

I was listening to WCBE (90.5 in Columbus, Ohio) early this week. It’s Central Ohio’s NPR station.

While listening, I heard some news about the debate on setting goals to start reducing the U.S. footprint in Iraq. Apparently, the congress is debating (or, more accurately, the Republicans are filibustering) the idea of setting goals (which are the cornerstone of any success in any activity in life - ask any successful businessperson).

The filibustering isn’t the good part… my favorite part of the NPR story was the quotes (and I wish I could remember who said them):

“The best way to support our troops is to support our troops…”
“The best way to defeat Al Qaida is to defeat Al Qaida…”

Okay…

So…

What?!?

It could be said about anything that the best way to do something is to do it.

“The best way to fly a plane is to fly a plane.”
“The best way to lose weight is to lose weight.”

Yeah. Duh. But it’s not that simple.

There HAS to be a plan. There HAS to be something more than a blanket statement of the obvious… HOW do we support our troops? HOW do we defeat Al Qaida? WHY do we need to? WHO is going to do it? WHAT needs to our troops have? WHERE do we focus our limited resources to do so? WHEN do we check to see what kind of progress we have made?

I am sure there are many that nodded and agreed with the statements made by our distinguished representatives from Mt. Obvious. Those people, I’m sure, think that those statements were deep and thoughtful. I think that they were a waste of time and a sad statement about the people running our country. Don’t give me soundbites - especially not inane, stupid ones. Give me substance.

And we all know - the best way to talk about something sustantial is to talk about something sustantial.

Fair Winds,
Andrew