day 147: Navigating Waters

I was talking with an entrepreneur recently and he was asking my opinion on where to focus the strategy of a new business. He asked if I thought it would be better to launch his business in the red water or the blue water. I had not heard those choice descriptions before so I listened as he described them both. Red water was launching into where there was already a proven business market that investors would be able to clearly recognize. But, it is called red water he said, because there is also already competition and the water is churning with the fights that occur when the sharks are already circling and feeding. That sounded pretty ominous so I was curious to how he would describe blue water. Blue water is beyond the competition and out in the waters where we don’t know if a business idea is viable or not. As I listened, I understood the metaphors and we talked about the pros and cons of both. As I thought more about this later many of the ideas we have to progress and grow our businesses can be categorized into either the red water or blue. While the blue water seems, on the surface, more attractive it can take a long time to get out to the blue waters and once you are out there, you have all the risks and dangers of being alone with no one else to learn from and you also burn a lot of fuel and expense to get there and back. Whether it be blue or red, it is a safe bet that the water is also deep and deep waters can create anxiety, fear of the unknown, and more chance that if something does go wrong that survival will be harder. While these all seem like extremes, take a moment and think about the challenges that are facing you at work right now, this week or this year? Anything that is worth doing is hard and comes with the waters that we may not want to have to navigate. It’s not hard to find someone in the office who would describe their past week as “rough sailing”. It happens to all of us and it happens often. When we are out there in the rough waters what do we have to grab onto and help us not capsize. God gives us his own promise about what we can expect if we are in the deep waters and we call upon him. He says in Isaiah 43:2l; "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you ". Today you may be heading out into the red, blue, rough and deep waters of your job and responsibilities. As you head there take the promise of God with you and know that even in the deepest of deep waters He is right there with you at all times!

Reference: Isaiah 43:2 (New Living Testament)