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From
Zero to One
By Leonard Sweet | posted 2000
We are
born to be risk takers. Every child is a risk taker. With
every step toddlers take risks. A baby’s first step is
the biggest risk of all. Parents do right making a big deal
about a child’s "first step." For the distance
from zero to one is greater than the distance from one to
any other number. Once you achieve "one," you have
momentum–a momentum so great that it carries first-time
walkers forward at a run, not walk. Once you achieve "one,"
you also have a model, and models are important because, in
Bertrand Russell’s witty phrasing, models have all the
advantages of theft over honest toil. Once a child takes that
first step, it’s batten down the hatches.
To learn
how to go from zero to one–from nothing to something–to
overcome inertia with initiative, is to develop one of life’s
most constructive "crossover" skills.
On binary
computers, the difference between zero and one is the difference
between on and off. It’s no different in the church.
The difference between an "on" church and an "off"
church is the difference between zero and one.
"Stability
itself is nothing else than a more sluggish motion."
- French philosopher Michel de Montaigne
Inertia
is another word for "sin." Business theorists Gary
Hamel and C.K. Prahalad describe an experiment with monkeys
that illustrates the "problem of sin" known as inertia:
Four monkeys
were put into a room. In the center of the room was a tall
pole with a bunch of bananas suspended from the top. One particularly
hungry monkey eagerly scampered up the pole, intent on retrieving
a banana. Just as he reached out to grasp the banana, he was
hit with a torrent of cold water from an overhead shower.
With a squeal, the monkey abandoned its quest and retreated
down the pole. Each monkey attempted, in turn, to secure the
banana. Each received an equally chilly shower, and each scampered
down without the prize. After repeated drenchings, the monkeys
finally gave up on the bananas.
With the
primates thus conditioned, one of the original four was removed
from the experiment and a new monkey added. No sooner had
this new, innocent monkey started up the pole than his (or
her) companions reached up and yanked the surprised creature
back down the pole. The monkey got the message–don’t
climb the pole. After a few such aborted attempts, but without
ever having received a cold shower, the new monkey stopped
trying to get the bananas. One by one, each of the original
monkeys was replaced. Each new monkey learned the same lesson.
Don’t climb the pole. None of the new monkeys ever made
it to the top of the pole. None even got so far as a cold
shower. Not one understood precisely why pole climbing was
discouraged, but they all respected the well-established precedent.
Even after the shower was removed, no monkey ventured up the
pole.
Spiritual
apathy is one of the deadliest of the "seven deadly sins"
because it involves the lack of energy to start afresh, to
launch into the deep, to be open to change.
"It’s
the start that stops most people." - Anonymous
Every
organization needs zero-to-one people, risk takers who can
take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
In fact, zero-to-one people (also known as make-things-happen
people) are the most valuable people in any group. One of
the most important people you can have on your team or staff
is the person who makes two words out of that one word "inaction."
The
Brass Neck
In Scotland, there is a phrase: "He has a brass neck."
It means that someone has so much self-confidence that he
is willing to stick his neck out. People with "brass
necks" are capable of sticking their necks into places
that are risky, places where they could get their heads chopped
off. Children are born with brass necks. All biological systems–like
children–work not so much by trial and error, but by
trial and success. Postmoderns in particular explore life
not by first looking under the hood and seeing what kind of
horsepower and firepower they have, but by taking off and
experiencing it.
One day
our eight-year-old son, Thane, came in from outside agitated
and aroused. "Look at my new skateboard," he exclaimed.
"It’s got a scar on it."
"I’m
sorry, Thane," I replied with concern. "Maybe we
can rub it out."
"What
do you mean? Why would you do that? I want scars on my skateboard."
Sensing
that I was about to learn something significant, I asked:
"What do skateboard scars mean to you, Thane?"
"A
scar means you’re getting better, Dad. So the more scars
on your skateboard, the better off you are. I know someone
at school who had so many scars his board broke!"
Postmoderns
learn by doing. They wear their scars as badges of honor.
A beat board is a beautiful board.
Rubbermaid
usually ends up rated the "Most Admired Corporation in
America." Their tacit motto is one of "You don’t
like those products? I got others." Rubbermaid introduces
one new product a day, one in ten of which is a total failure.
One study
of 2,036 scientists throughout history "found that the
most respected produced not only more great works, but also
more ‘bad’ ones. They produced. Period."
"Error
is the heroic form of finding one’s way– a purposeful
wandering toward truth, a pilgrimage in which the heart’s
longing is guide." - Poet
Jorie Graham5
A few
years back Joyce Carol Oates published a treatise on the relationship
of failure to fine literature. She recalled the observation
of T.S. Eliot when he was being interviewed by a university
audience. A young student asked, "Mr. Eliot, isn’t
it true that most critics are failed writers?" Eliot
replied, "Yes, and so are most writers."
They all
had their share of failures. But they kept producing. The
worship team at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church (Ohio)
risks it all every Sunday. Every worship experience is built
on a willingness to lose it all the next week for the sake
of the gospel. For example, one Sunday when it was time for
the call to worship, the pastor stood up from the front row,
said he’d had a rough week, and asked the congregation
to call him to worship. Then he sat back down. Several awkward
minutes passed before people began standing and reading aloud
favorite or worshipful passages of Scripture. The people’s
call to worship–a risky venture–resulted in a powerful,
life-lifting experience. The church’s flaws are the admissions
costs of its ambitions for God and the gospel.
"There
is something vulgar about all success. The greatest fail,
or seem to have failed."
Excerpted
from AQUA CHURCH. Copyright © Group Publishing
INC., All rights reserved.
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