A man made a comfortable living for several years selling hot dogs along the side the road of a tourist community. He had difficulty hearing and his sight was deteriorating so he didn’t read the newspaper or listen to the radio, but he was passionate about his hot dogs.

His sophisticated marketing was a hand-painted sign declaring how good his hot dogs were. He enthusiastically announced to every passerby that they should buy his hot dogs. . . and they did.

He was obsessed with providing the best thick tasty hot dogs and warm buns possible for his customers. He passionately let his potential customers know what they would be missing if they passed up his hot dog stand.

The hot dog stand grew into quite a prosperous business. He increased his hot dog and bun orders and even purchased a larger grill to keep up with the demand. Then his eldest son came home from college and said, “Dad, what in the world are you doing? Haven’t you been listening to the news? We are in the middle of an economic crisis. Europe is struggling. The Asian economy is teetering on failure. There’s historic chaos in Washington, DC. Tourism is in the tank. You could lose your healthcare and Social Security. What are you doing expanding your operation?”

The elderly man figured his college-educated son must know what he is talking about. So, he took down his sign, decreased his bun and hot dog order, and quit announcing to passerby’s how delicious his hot dogs were.

Sales Plummeted!

“You’re right,” the old man said to his son a few weeks later. “We are certainly in the middle of a recession. Good thing you warned me.”

DOOMSDAY is all around us. Decide not to participate.

Heed Patrick Lencioni’s warning that, “If you’re not willing to do things that others would say are over the top, and if you’re not comfortable being criticized for being annoying and for having standards that seem perhaps just a little too high, then you’ll drift toward mediocrity.”

Mediocre Standards and Expectations Breed Mediocre Results. . .

Extraordinary Expectations Set the Stage for Extraordinary Results. . .

In other words. . . Increase Your Bun Order.

What’s an unthinkable thing to do right now in your world but if you could pull it off, it would dramatically change the quality of what you do?

Willingly mess with worn out, worshipped processes, policies and procedures to pursue this one unthinkable thing. It will catapult you past doomsayer results.

Remember, what got you to where you are won’t get you where we want to go. . . Look beyond the tried and true and pursue the unthinkable.

Questions to Ponder:

What doomsday prophecy have you bought into? How can you counterattack the impact?

What is that unthinkable thing?