My good friend Terry Gold used this phrase with me once and it stuck. He was talking about how as CEO of Gold Systems he fells like he lives in the "gap" between what the company is doing today, and what it could be doing. It's the frustrating feeling that comes with knowing what's possible, aspiring to it, making progress, but still seeing/feeling the gap. It's not about coming up short - it's about always shooting higher, and as such there's a gap between what we are accomplishing today and what we could be accomplishing. For many people like Terry Gold and myself, living in the gap is something that comes with the territory when you are leading an organization.
But, the more I think about it this plays out in all our lives. We work hard to take care of thing that are important: jobs, families, health, etc. And, we know we could do even more in each of those areas. But the gap really widens when think about doing all of that, PLUS trying to make the world a better place (helping to fight poverty, disease, save the environment, etc.).
The good news is that the world is a highly connected place. The more we see this and understand it we begin to realize that we can close the gap by tipping a few dominos. In some cases you can actually see the effect of the 'tip', other times you need to use your imagination.
Tipping dominos helps close the gap between what where we are today, and our ambitions and dreams.
