Business (and life) works the same way.
Excellence is rare. There’s so much mediocrity out in the world. Drive down the road, walk the aisles of your grocery store, browse the shelves of your favorite bookstore, scroll through Airbnb. How often does something truly stand out, stop you in your tracks, and command your attention? Even for the most curious among us, not often.
For hospitality developers, home designers, and human beings in general, there’s a lesson here.
You have this big dream. You saw it in your sleep, in a book, or on Instagram. You want to do something new and exciting: let’s say it’s to plant a garden, landscape the front yard, or build a micro-resort.
So you go all in. You spend the money. You might even blow your budget hiring premium contractors to do the best work. But it just doesn’t hit like you want it to. It’s a bit “meh.” Or perhaps it looks beautiful, but you can’t keep up with it!
The dream isn’t the problem—I love big dreams and big dreamers.
The problem is not what you did.
The problem what you did not do.
You were so stretched thin executing “the thing” in all its bigness and glory that you missed the small, subtle opportunities to make it sing. The intricate trim details. The gentle curve in the pathway through the trees. The stone drinking fountain nestled inside the small, walled garden. Scaling back the vision, even radically, could’ve allowed you to create far more “wow” and fulfillment.
be like nordlys
Whenever I think about this truth (and I do a lot), I always think of my friends Bruce & Ann McPheeters. Together with their son Jeff, they own and operate one of my favorite properties—Nordlys up in Wisconsin. Having admired their place since the early days of building Live Oak Lake, I had the privilege of staying there myself last October.
They told me a story.
