In life, it appears we have a myriad of choices as to what we are or will be.

But there are really only two choices : you can be a noun or a verb.

Let’s look at some of the nouns:

* Middle Manager
* Control Freak
* Nice Person
* Smoker
* Boyfriend
* Girlfriend

Do any appeal to you? Describe you? I hope not, because, conventional wisdom aside, this is so passive and so one dimensional, it is like being an inanimate object. And worse yet, it is how the world wants you to be. Safe and easy to define.

“She’s my middle manager for call center operations.”

“He’s my dry but safe boyfriend.”

Do you want to be safe and easy to define? I don’t think so. I hope not. I talked about this with a friend today. And it hit me big time.

A famous axiom says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I will add to that by saying, “A noun is a terrible thing to be.”

Let’s contrast the nouns with some verbs:

* Thinking
* Loving
* Romancing
* Inventing
* Challenging

It really boils down to those who watch and those who do. Those who observe and those who act. The passive and the active. The active and the passive.

This is your choice. This is your life.

In physics, there are the applied type and the theoretical breed. The latter think they are superior. They opine. They postulate. Some add value. Most just secure tenure.

Twice in the world, physicists were the kings. When Einstein brought forth E=MC2 and when a group of theorists APPLIED their genius to The Manhattan Project and saved democracy.

They transitioned from nouns, “physicists” to verbs, “Savers Of The Free World.”

That is more than a word. More than grammar. More than an intellectual exercise. It is the difference between living life and not.

Mark Stevens
CEO

Tags: Business, challenging, msco, thinking

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 9:36 am and is filed under Business, Entrepreneur, Unconventional Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.