I am currently reading the book – Breakthrough: How to Harness the Aha! Moments That Spark Success by Scott Duffy and David Meltzer. So far the book has turned out to be an easy read and has some interesting stories to teach some very good (though not very surprising lessons).
One of the thing that the authors talk about in the book is about the ability to manage different priorities as an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur. In this context they share the metaphor of super balls and glass balls.
While juggling different balls, you can drop the super balls without doing too much damage as they will bounce right back and keep bouncing for a while. You can pick them up in a bit and start juggling them right away.
Whereas, if you drop a glass ball, you are likely to damage the ball (shatter might be a better word) if you drop one of the glass balls. There is no way to recover from that damage.
Wisdom:
The wisdom is in knowing if which of the balls that you are juggling are glass one’s and which of them are super balls.
This awareness can enable us to ensure that we try to never drop the glass balls and can potentially let some of the super balls drop momentarily. Some of these glass ball priorities could be
- Our Physical and Emotional health
- Cash flow issues that could bankrupt the business
- Personal relationships
- Trust among employees
- Building the right culture within our business
Depending upon the situation that we are in, these could change. We need to be aware of these changes in order to prioritise not losing the glass balls.
In Conclusion:
I think this is a good analogy to describe priorities. This clearly visualises what would happen if we do not take care of the most important things right away and also allows us the permission to miss out and slow down on other non-critical things for a bit to ensure that we are able to take care of the most important things first.
So, the question to ask ourselves is the following
What are our glass balls right now among all that we are juggling?
