December 2024 – An End for A Beginning

 

Those of us who have seen the 1997 movie Batman and Robin, will know its main tie-song "The End is the Beginning is the End" written by Billy Corgan, and performed by the Smashing Pumpkins. The refrain (chorus) in the song, goes as follows:

Is it bright where you are?

Have the people changed?

Does it make you happy?

You're so strange.

You may wonder why I am referring to this song and writing about the End and the Beginning. Allow me, upfront, to let the cat out of the bag!

Thirteen years and more than 160 posts after I first started to write and publish a monthly piece on my random thoughts pertaining to leadership & entrepreneurship, self-introspection as well as feedback from a few readers (genuine well-wishers) have suggested that the time for change has probably come and that the change will actually benefit me as well as my loyal readers.

Change, they say, is the only constant; in fact, some would even argue, that it defines the infinite continuum of experiences. Most of us though, often regard change as an end to ‘normal current expectations and a beginning for uncertain future expectations.’

Conveniently, we disregard the facts about the actual desirability of either!

Leaders and Entrepreneurs are no different in this aspect. There is excitement and euphoria when new initiatives are begun and they progress as planned or as expected. There is no conscious effort to ‘end the game’ when ‘the going is good’; no strategic initiative to leverage on ‘the good showing thus far” and build entirely new initiatives that will excite everyone, and most of all, themselves!

There is a need to re-learn, reinvent, and re-write the rules of the game, if one needs to remain relevant. And for these, the first step is to be bold enough to pause and review the experiences of the achievements themselves.

The Batman and Robin song can help in such a review.

When there is ambiguity in answering the questions in the song’s refrain, or when the answers do not excite with new visions of infinite possibilities (read ideas!), it is the time for changing the storyline.

Is it bright where you are?

Have the people changed?

Does it make you happy?

You're so strange.

And so it happens, I have decided that the time has indeed come to change the storyline of the monthly articles on this blog.

This will be the last one on the theme of leadership and entrepreneurship. In that sense this is an End.

Starting with the New Year, I will endeavor to entertain you with a new series on an entirely new theme. What it is, will hopefully be a pleasant New Year Surprise to all of you. That will be the Beginning.

The End is the Beginning is the End!