New

. . . . and new things I now declare;

 - From Isaiah 42

I've had a sort of life tenet, that I made up, although it certainly is not new. It came out of my years as a consultant in Total Quality Management. But the idea is: you have to make yourself, or your product, obsolete.

Because if you don't, someone else will. But if you do, it will be on your own terms, and you will have influenced the rules so that it is to your advantage, moving forward.

This is why businesses cannot just level off. You have to keep growing. You have to let go and let others come in and build what you planned. The architect and the carpenter are not the same person.

I'm in an entrepreneurial situation even now. My innovation, the Hudson Education Center, floundered along for five or ten years. It is a 501 nonprofit, devoted to youth and the performing arts. It kept a slow pace, not really growing, not really changing. But it was always just one little contingency away from having to fold.

If I wanted it to outlive me . . . then I must make it so that it can grow without me.

A new board member came along, with the energy and vision to build our infrastructure and administrative processes. Soon, we had new people joining us, with new ideas, with different ideas. These ideas would require me to give up control of this part, or that piece, of the business. My value to the organization would change . . . from founder to manager. I would have to  execute the wishes of the board and our team, with excellence. I would become like any employee of any organization. I would have to deliver. And I would have to let others take over some of my responsibilities.

But the result is . . . . growth. And the risks to me increase. But so do the potential benefits.

Let go . . . let others . . . let God.

Do new things . . . or die.

God is always announcing new plans. He retools. He prunes. And arguably, He learns . . . but as perfect God, He responds correctly, and changes so that His end game may be assured. (He knows what He's doing, and is never surprised. But He models how we should adapts to things.)

The Bible is full of beginnings and endings. But every end just turns over to a new beginning, to new things, to new ideas.

Let go. Let God.

And be constantly renewed.