FSS Spotlight: Face Your Deck Chair Forward

By Harvey Mackay

In one of my favorite "Peanuts" comic strips, Lucy tells Charlie Brown, "Life is a cruise ship!" She goes on to explain that some people sit in their deck chairs facing the ship's stern so they can see where they have been. Others sit near the ship's bow so they can see where they are going.

Then Lucy asks, "Which way does your deck chair face, Charlie Brown?"

In typical fashion, Charlie replies, "I don't know. I've never been able to get my deck chair open.

Here's a little advice for when you open your deck chair: Since you have a good idea of where you have been, set your chair so that you can see where you are going.

Looking back is useful to assess success or to avoid repeating mistakes. It is also a good indicator of the direction you are heading. If you are satisfied with your ability to survive your future, keep your deck chair firmly planted. If you see an iceberg, change the course and find a new vantage point for your chair.

If a comic strip seems too cute for an example, let's go back to ancient mythology, to Janus, the Roman god of doorways. He is portrayed as having a face on the front and back of his head, which is supposed to show that a doorway is both an entrance and an exit. As Janus stands in the doorway - the present - he can look forward and backward simultaneously. The month of January is named for this god, marking the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one ... the past and the future.

Hockey great Wayne Gretsky could see the future on the ice. "I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."

If you don't have that sixth sense - in other words, if you can't spot trends or predict the next new thing - your future may be hindered.

Management guru Peter Drucker shares this wisdom: "It is futile to try to guess what products the future will want. But it is possible to make up one's mind what idea one wants to make a reality in the future, and to build a different business on such an idea."

What does the future look like for business? If I had the definitive answer to that, I wouldn't have to worry about my future, or my children's, or even my grandchildren's. One thing we can see is the trend toward diversity. In 1998, 73 percent of the American population was classified as white, but by 2050, that demographic will be 53 percent. The African-American, Asian and Hispanic populations in America all will increase, which will signal a need for new products, new approaches in hiring and marketing, and a wider view of the world. We will be serving ever-growing world markets and competing with manufacturers from every corner of the globe. Much of that future is at our doorstep now, begging for our personal Janus to look ahead for the best ways to compete and thrive.

If you would have told me 40 years ago that the need for paper envelopes would be replaced by electronic transmissions in everyday correspondence, I'm not sure I would have believed you. Mackay Envelope Company, whose mission is "To be in business forever," could have been a pleasant memory if we had just given up then. Instead, we took our working knowledge and adapted it to fit needs for other kinds of direct mail and packaging applications.

Knowing where you came from is often a very important link to where you will - and should - go next. A successful farmer hired a neighbor's inexperienced son to help with the spring plowing. The farmer left the boy unsupervised to go work in a different field. The boy tried as hard as he could to plow straight furrows, and frequently looked over his shoulder to check his progress. Despite his best efforts, the rows were crooked, and nothing seemed to change his results.

The farmer came back to check on the boy, and identified the problem immediately. In a calm voice, the farmer told him, "You can't plow a straight row if you continually look back. You must keep your eyes focused straight ahead. And always remember where you have been."

Mackay's Moral: If you don't look ahead, you'll always be behind.