There’s an amazing thing that happens when you gather together a group of really smart, really creative people, expose them to thought-provoking content and provide them with plenty of time to talk amongst themselves:
Everyone in the room gets smarter.
In conversation after conversation at SB3, I found myself connecting dots with lines I never could have drawn by myself, brainstorming ideas I never could have imagined by myself, and reaching conclusions I never could have found by myself.
SB3 made me smarter. Smarter than I could ever be by myself.
After one of the many mind-revving conversations I had at SB3, I shared this observation with our keynote speaker, Tom Kennedy. He smiled wisely and said “One plus one isn’t really two, you know. One plus one equals ten.”
Moving forward, I am making a commitment to staying smarter. A commitment to stop letting that daily treadmill of tasks and deadlines prevent me from connecting with other people who propel my thinking beyond my own limitations. A commitment to stop letting my fear of “bothering” people keep me from asking questions and starting dialogs. A commitment to stop and think, not alone, but in conversation with other smart, creative people who are done thinking “outside the box” and are ready to smash the box to smithereens.
Whether you attended SB3 or not, I hope that you will reach out to one, or two or ten people to bounce ideas and see how high they’ll go. ‘Cause if 1 + 1 = 10, then together, we can reach the stars.