are you a beacon?

[“Adventure”. Buy the print here etc.]

Are you a beacon?

A beacon is a navigation signal that tells you where you are when you’re lost at sea.

We spend a lot of our careers being lost at sea…. paddling away, not quite sure where we are, hoping to God that a big wave won’t come along and swamp our little boat.

And we look for beacons to guide us, to give us hope, to tell us where we are, to show us where the standard is, to show us the way forward. Beacons can be people, products, businesses or even ideas.

“Life might suck right now, but one day I’ll land a kick-ass job as Creative Director for Crispin Porter!”

“Life might suck right now, but one day I’ll write as good a novel as Jonathan Franzen!”

“Life might suck right now, but one day our product will be better than SAP or Oracle!”

These are beacons…

Obviously, if you or your product is a beacon to other people in your own industry, you have a considerable advantage going for you. Not to mention, a really good reason to get up in the morning.

So in my typical way, I’ll ask you, are you beacon? If not, don’t you think you should be?

To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about you when I sat down to write this, sorry. I was actually thinking about my client, Rackspace. Are they a beacon? I know they’re certainly capable of it.

I’m just thinking outloud, here…