IDENTIFY WHO KEEPS YOU ON THE GROUND

At MORTAR we have a saying: For The Dreamers & Doers.

To be a doer is well understood. If you are a person of immediate action, your reputation is that you get things done. Perhaps you use a very technical spreadsheet, a series of checklists, and you strategically follow each presumed step to reach a goal. I admire people who can map out their day, their week, or even their year like this. It’s a natural inclination of theirs; the only way they can complete a task.

Then you have those of us who are ridiculously delusional about what is possible. No matter the idea, the barriers of entry are perceived to be low, the most glamorous outcome is perceived to be very easy to achieve.The when, where, and the who is approached with child-like optimism. And if you’re anything like me, you can imagine all of the elaborate details, how every point of a concept is tied together, and can write a creative proposal that is as inspirational as it is committed to an impossible timeline. But our innate flexibility means the step by step plan to achieve the idea may not be as elaborate.

These are the dreamers. Misunderstood largely because of their unpredictability (will they ACTUALLY do that thing? Why do they think they should put everything on the line to do that thing?). The dreamers’ qualities aren’t necessarily negative and making a technical plan for completion isn’t always a skill that they lack. It’s just that they better benefit from having a person to remind them to slow down and consider the small nuances, bringing the dreamer out of dreamland and into reality.

Maybe I’m just biased, but I believe that dreamers created the world we live in, and the doers just run it. It’s wild ideas and stupid leaps of faith that innovation is built on. However when the impossible timeline catches up to you, and the crunch of all of the fantasizing weighs you down, it’s nice to have a doer (or someone who thinks like one) nearby to remind you that there are better ways to budget your time and energy.

Identifying who that is on your team will balance out the pursuit of that amazing groundbreaking thing you’re working on.