day 882: Living By the Rules

"Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live." For every rule, there is someone who wants everyone to abide by it, someone who wants to change it, someone who doesn’t care whether it is there or not, and someone who just wants to break the rule.  Some people, like entrepreneurs are wired to look past the rules and then try and create new ones that best benefit their cause.  They start from a place of bringing about change, new, improved or different and then go from there.  If properly channeled this can be the secret of success and the drive that is needed to push through with a startup or new venture.  Staring down the barrel of conventional wisdom and not blinking is an admiral trait.  That said, this works best at the top of the organization with Founders/CEOs and is less effective the further spread into the organization this goes.  Sure, we talk a lot about “intrapreneurs”, but at the end of the day if everyone in the organization was about bucking the system, there wouldn’t be a system at all and that would translate to chaos and anarchy.  And, as we are mature enough to know those two characteristics cannot sustain a company.  So, let’s celebrate the entrepreneurs and the rule busters, but let’s also be sensible about it and be sure that all that we build is built on a foundation of the right values, principles and ethics. God gave us laws first and then underpinned those with a set of values that should be inarguable. Even those who don’t believe can’t argue that the lessons of Jesus are applicable to a better organization and life.  Those of us who believe know that they are so much more. The lessons of Jesus are the love that He gave to us and the example of how we are to live out that love for others to see, recognize and become believers themselves.  How do we do this?  We do it through following His rules and subordinating ourselves to Him.  There are some times in life where living by the rules is the best route to take.  Reference: Psalm 119:114 (New Living Testament)