The events of this past week in Washington DC have been a revelation for many people, and it will be something that we as a nation will have to deal with for years to come. But what I wanted to write on today was about decisions. Let’s assume things went down as people (Trump, radical leaders or whomever was helping plan it) expected for the most part: that people got into the U.S. Capitol, caused lots of chaos and damage, and made a physical statement about how the election was stolen from Trump.
There was a lot of shock over these events, even though there’s been a lot of discussion and anger over the November election, because I don’t think anyone really expected things would go this far. But my focus today is not on those events, but on what we’re seeing this week, and that’s something that we saw in big numbers over the past year with regard to the Black Lives Matter work, and that’s businesses finally saying and doing something, and in this case it’s drawing a line on the sand and refusing to support people who encourage or support this type of negative activity and violence. People who were there are being arrested and charged with serious offenses, some being fired from their jobs.
I don’t know that most of these people, both politicians and people in the crowds, thought they would be facing all the backlash and lack of support that they’re seeing. When I first started seeing all the headlines about companies dropping support, evaluating their donation and affiliation policies, and speaking out I was more than a little surprised. Maybe it’s because of how public it was, or maybe it’s because of how increasingly divisive everything has become politically over the last four years, but something has changed over the past 6-8 months and people and companies are responding much more vocally and visibly in ways that they haven’t in years past.
So what does this have to do with success? To be successful in this day and age you generally have to follow along with a crowd and hope you get lucky (i.e. be another fitness trainer or clothing designer or supplement creator along the typical lines but maybe with a little bit of uniqueness), or you have to do something new and different and hope it works. There’s a risk with doing the latter, and part of that risk has to do with how different or polarizing what you’re creating is or how narrow the niche is that you’re trying to reach, and the fact that you could end up in a lot of trouble for picking the direction you choose. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect, because there are plenty of people who have made mistakes and are now successful again. But we’ve reached a place in history that we, as the pastor I was listening to this morning said, can’t be acting stupid. Mistakes are one thing, but not considering the consequences of participating in something like the events of last Wednesday is, in a word, stupid.
As you work into this new year with, I hope, many more possibilities and awesome happenings than was in the last year, I encourage you to really think through important decisions you’re going to make, and really consider not only the impact that they may have on others, but how serious any potential negative impact on you would be. No, you can’t predict all failings or short comings, but sometimes it’s fairly obvious that a decision would be highly likely to result in a not good turn of events for you, especially if you know you’re more susceptible to getting swept away or blinded by strong emotions. I encourage you to make decisions that will help bring you to new victories and bigger successes this year.