You Might Be Lost

It's so obvious it feels foolish to say, but it needs to be said anyway. Lots of businesses know where they are. Lots of businesses know where they are going. Lots of businesses only know one or the other. If that is true for your business, I hate to break it to you - but you are lost. So, let's talk about what you can do.

The funny thing about being lost is that you usually don't know you are lost until after it becomes true. Being lost is terrible. You feel stuck even though you're moving. You feel overwhelmed, anxious, frustrated, and helpless all at the same time. These are the symptoms that present themselves as the illness of being lost becomes true.

I didn't realize it at the time, but in 2006 I was lost. I was really lost. I was lost in terms of identity and geography at the same time.

My identity was lost in what can only be described as a quarter-life crisis. I'd come to the harsh and sudden realization that I was arrogant, greedy, and selfish. I was driven by money, flashy things, and I saw most people around me as a means to a selfish end. I was not a good person. I was not in a good place. I knew exactly where my identity was, but I couldn't stay there and had no idea where to go.

To this day, I don't know if fear or courage led me to run away from the nasty person I'd become, but one thing is for sure - I ran! I ran like a man being chased by something terrifying. I ran immediately, frantically, with no direction and with no plan at all. I just ran - away.

I was lost. I was really lost. I was lost because even though I knew exactly where I was, I had absolutely no idea where I was going.

Businesses get lost like this all the time. They know exactly where they are, but they know they can't stay there. So, they charge blindly into the future with no plan or direction about what they must become. Whether they realize it or not - they are lost.

By luck, fate, or divine intervention, I ended up in Costa Rica, searching for my soul on a surfboard in the ocean for five or six hours every day. After a few months, I grew strong and confident in the surf, but I was tired of surfing the same few crowded breaks. I decided to venture out to find some 'secret surf spots.'

I set out for the first secret spot with a clear vision of my destination - perfect waves, offshore winds, and no crowds, but before long, I was lost geographically. I knew I was somewhere in the Costa Rican jungle along a 300-kilometer stretch of the Pacific Ocean, but that was about as specific as possible.

I had no digital map because smartphones had yet to be invented. I had a paper map, but it was missing some main roads and didn't have any seasonal roads, trails, or topography I needed to navigate. I had directions if you want to call them that. They were what I came to know as Tico (short for Costa Rican) directions - meaning they referenced landmarks that existed in the past but were no longer there. It was a list of descriptions that said things like, 'Turn left about 600 meters past where the giant Guanacaste tree used to be.'

At first, I sketched notes and landmarks onto my crappy map, imagining I was like Lewis and Clarke mapping the Louisiana territory, documenting the great unknown so that in the future, I could return to these secret spots successfully. A couple of days later, I realized that I'd stopped documenting for the future and switched to doing it as a desperate attempt to figure out where the %$&! on that crinkled-up sheet of paper called a map I was.

I ventured hopefully down trail after trail, sometimes by car and sometimes on foot, almost always with a 9 ft longboard in tow. Many of these adventures took hours. Most of them ended with me hitting dead ends and having to turn around. As I disappeared deeper and deeper into unknown territory, I grew less aware of where I was and, therefore, less aware of where I needed to go. As I wandered, now aimlessly, through the jungle in search of a destination that seemed so clear and vivid just a few days before, I couldn't help but chuckle at the obvious irony - that these so-called secret surf spots really didn't want to be found.

I was lost. I was really lost. I was lost because even though I knew where I was going, I had absolutely no idea where I was.

Tons of businesses are lost like this, and most of them don't know it. Armed with a clear vision and strategy of what the future looks like but unable to get there because they need to know or understand where they really are.

Being lost is terrible. It sneaks up on you. You feel stuck even though you're moving - overwhelmed, frustrated, and helpless all at the same time. We naturally try to treat these symptoms, but the only way to get rid of them is to address the cause.

It's so obvious it feels foolish to say, but it needs to be said anyway. Lots of businesses know where they are. Lots of businesses know where they are going. If your business only knows one or the other - I hate to break it to you - but you are lost. If you still aren't sure, talk to your team and see if the symptoms emerge.

No matter what you are navigating - life, relationships, a career change, business, marketing, sales, operations, innovation, customer experience, or a trip to Disneyland - start by defining where you are and where you are going in a clear, simple way that everyone can understand. It's the only way to navigate successfully.