Today there has been published my official exit from the accounting firm I was a partner with for the past seventeen years. I mentioned in a previous blog that as with martial arts, in business and in life's decisions, timing is of essence. I would like to add here that with timing, it is also decisiveness that makes a decision effective. Indecision will only erode on time and miss out on opportunities. In karate we learn about kyo, or dead-time. It is when an opportunity comes into focus and very temporarily, in your mind, it lays still. Your reaction to that should be immediate and decisive. In martial arts it becomes somewhat different to taking a business decision in that the mind has to connect to the body and the body should respond with the least time delay. In business it is the mind that takes the decision and coordinates the action necessary to effect that decision.
In iaido, the art of drawing the sword, the draw and cut have to be decisive, focussed and swift. Only then can one cut clean through the makiwara. True that the katana or Japanese sword, is made with an impressive degree of craftsmanship and the blade is amazingly sharp. But that is just not enough to cut swiftly through the makiwara made of a bamboo core and packed tightly in straw. It is untiring practice, honing of skills, and the unification of the mind and body, decision with the action, that will exhibit the beauty of the clean cut. Quite analogous to business acumen, I think.
Hence the new name of my business consulting firm - KATANA Consulting
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2 comments:
This morning on my way to the office I read an excellent article by the late Peter Drucker called Managing Oneself. It is highly relevant to what you are writing. His main points are that knowledge worker need to know how they perform and hence under what circumstances they will not perform; how they learn and finally what their values are. I believe that only when those conditions are met, a decison in business or in life can be "decisive, focussed and swift".
Absolutely true. And this is the core scope of shiai, or testing oneself in the Japanese martial arts.
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