The Shadow Side of Greatness

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Invite Friends CEO Picks - The most popular editorials that have stood the test of time! The Shadow Side of Greatness Do you want the shadow that comes with success? Do you want the baggage that comes with the bounty? What kind of pain are you willing to bear in the name of achieving what you want to achieve? Answering this question honestly often leads to more insight about what you really care about than thinking of your dreams and aspirations. It is easy to want financial independence or the approval of your boss or to look good in front of the mirror. Everybody wants those things. But do you want the shadow side that goes with it? Do you want to spend two extra hours at work each day rather than with your kids? Do you want to put your career ahead of your marriage? Do you want to wake up early and go to the gym when you feel like sleeping in? Different people have different answers and you'll have to decide what is best for you, but pretending that the shadow isn't there is not a good strategy.

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Can innovation be forced? Economists and business strategists have long noticed that industries tend to converge on just a few places. Milan for fashion, London for finance, Silicon Valley for technology—for any given sector, there are usually one or two points on which the whole world revolves. Over the past few decades, this insight has led many policymakers to try to nurture not just individual companies but a whole ecosystem - a cluster - around a single industry. Creative industries, particularly sectors having to do with design or entertainment, seemed especially desirable: no smokestacks, no need for much in the way of raw materials besides brains, and a lot of profit if everything works out just right. Money for nothing, as Dire Straits sang about the music business in the 1980s. But after several decades, it's become increasingly clear that a creative cluster is not so easy to build. Sue Bagwell, Research Development Manager at the Cities Institute at London Metropolitan University, says her research found that governments tend to have a hard time creating clusters unless their efforts nurture a pre-existing community.