Getting It Wrong

Guest post by: Tom Peters
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I Hate MBAs/Redux - By Tom Peters

So often we use familiar quotes that leave out "the next couple of lines." And the meaning is distorted beyond recognition in the process. Consider "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds," from Ralph Waldo Emerson. The meaning is obviously that changing your mind is no sin; and that the wise among us change when circumstances change. In the aforementioned D.O., I found the fuller version of RWE's wisdom:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblins of little minds. Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today."

To be sure, the idea remains the idea of acceptable, in fact admirable inconsistency. But the emphasis is startling. Not only is inconsistency "okay," but inconsistency delivered in the most forceful terms is to be desired: "hard as cannonballs," "hard words." Moreover a rapid shift is acceptable as well: "today," "tomorrow"-though the latter doubtless is of a metaphorical character. At any rate, a significant change, and as one regularly accused of "[hard-word] inconsistency," most welcome.

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I Hate MBAs/Redux - By Tom Peters

About the Author: Tom Peters

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Tom & Bob Waterman coauthored In Search of Excellence in 1982; the book was named by NPR (in 1999) as one of the "Top Three Business Books of the Century," and ranked as the "greatest business book of all time" in a poll by Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (2002). Tom followed Search with a string of international bestsellers: A Passion for Excellence (1985, with Nancy Austin), Thriving on Chaos (1987), Liberation Management (1992: acclaimed as the "Management Book of the Decade" for the '90s), The Tom Peters Seminar: Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations (1993), The Pursuit of WOW! (1994); The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness (1997); and in 1999 a series of books on Reinventing Work: The Brand You50, The Project50 and The Professional Service Firm50. In 2003 Tom and publisher Dorling Kindersley released Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age; the revolutionary book, an immediate No.1 international best seller, aims to do no less than reinvent the business book through vibrant, energetic presentation of critical ideas.
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