Dead People Welcome in this Conversation
Posted: September 1, 2015 Written by: W.B. “Bud” Kirchner.
We want to share outside content, in this digital library by posting guest articles and including dead people in the conversation.
The stream of zombie movies and TV series will seemingly never die – you can’t swing a severed human limb without hitting an article (Forbes: “Saving Business From Its Zombies”) or a book (think New York Times bestseller “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”) that references the fictional living corpses.
But know this friend – the melding of neuroscience and psychology and business (the basis of our Business Brain Model℠) will outlive you, me and “The Walking Dead.”
Quotes from Dead People
While I will avoid those who have risen from the dead, I will not avoid those who are simply dead. I don’t think anybody should be excluded from the conversation just because they are dead.
If someone has said something the best way it can possibly be said then there is no reason for me to try and rephrase or rewrite. I don’t believe words of wisdom should go to the grave with the author.
It has been more than 125 years since Benjamin Franklin died yet so many of his quotes (you remember “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” right?) resonate loud and clear today. I would fail you and me if I did not include such wisdom from the grave.
Services for Zombies
However, it is ironic that part of our business does deal with companies and funds that are sometimes referred to as zombies. At both the company and portfolio level we are specialists in bringing businesses back from the dead. In order to specialize in fixing things you have to know how to grow them so we spend as much time (if not more) helping company’s start, grow, develop and crystalize their value.
“Some businessmen just have a knack for success: they know how to create it, grow it, manage it and even snatch it back from the brink of failure.” – Bob Scully, PBS Interviewer
Can you guess who Bob is referring to…? These types of services and skill sets are fundamental in our industry because companies that are pushing hard to constantly improve can get off track at times and even almost crash – someone has to help them. To recover from the brink of failure should be seen as a badge of honor for you and your company (if you learn from it), not a stigma.
“Any stigma, as the old saying is, will serve to beat a dogma.” ~ Philip Guedalla
Ultimately, I would like the Exploring the Business Brain to encourage you to look beyond dogmas. I hope you will recognize that nothing is incontrovertibly true. Everything is subject to review, to question and to change.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin
My Kirchner Group bio will tell you I’ve done the latter. Now I’m hoping Exploring the Business Brain will tell you the former as I throw my brain into this.
About the Author: W.B. “Bud” Kirchner is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist with more than 50 years of business success. He is not a scientist or an academic but he does have a diversified exposure to neuroscience, psychology and related areas. Generally speaking, the ideas he expresses here are business-angled expansions of other people’s ideas, so when possible, he will link to the original reference.