Practice Management

Paris and Real Life: In black, white and fresh.

By Dan Hull

Work and life. I love both so I do not separate them. No need to. They usually merge, occasionally split, but always dance with one another.

And their quality depends in large part upon whether I can manage to see conventional things differently--with a sense of surprise. Put another way, can I see routine things--in life and work--as a child would see them for the first time? If I can, it helps me. Helps clients, too. It improves problem-solving at all levels.

On the countless stays I've had in Paris, I visited the Eiffel Tower just once, on my second trip. Even then I thought it was boring and a waste of time--except I met on the tower a woman named Linda who stayed in my life for nearly 10 years. She was smart, beautiful, regal and hopelessly difficult--but never boring. Her arrival forced me to grow and create.

However, unlike Linda, views from, or of, the Eiffel Tower did not excite, overwhelm or inspire. Linda is much much better--in person, in memory. In short, this world famous landmark, as extraordinary as it is, never did much for me. You can have it.

But I am wrong about something every day. You do need to keep changing eyeglasses for work and life. And maybe even for the Eiffel Tower. At Eye Prefer Paris, which ex-New Yorker Richard Nahem writes from the Marais district, Nahem shows in "My Most Unique & Unusual Eiffel Tower Photos" how tired landmarks can be interesting again. For example:

Photo: Richard Nahem

Full post as published by What About Clients? on August 09, 2009 (boomark / email).