There’s a lot of hullabaloo in the media this week. I’m not referring to the healthcare fight. I’m talking about grown-ups in fierce debate over whether or not Spike Jonze’s movie version of Where the Wild Things Are is “too dark” for kids.
However, for those of you paying attention, Max, the boy pretending-to-be-a-wolf pretending-to-be-king, has discovered something really useful for you and me. Something we can apply to our internet business plans.
Think you know what it is?
If you guessed Max’s lush imagination, which is capable of transporting him to an exotic land where he gets to mandate wild rumpuses, you’d be partially right.
If you think that it’s his penchant for yelling out orders at the top of his lungs and sleeping with wild beasts, you’re partly right there too.
However, Max’s true genius is in knowing how to tame the Wild Things. He knows precisely when to change the script. Remember his response to Judith’s snarling suggestion that they eat him? He says, “Be still.”
And instead of eating him, they crown him King.
Who (or what) are your wild things? Tame them. Take the reigns.
Let me give you an example. One of my wild things is perfectionism. I will sometimes avoid a task if I don’t think I can pull it off perfectly. You might have to deal with this nasty beast yourself.
Or, your wild thing might be procrastination.
It could be a bad case of the shoulds.
Whatever name your wild things go by, don’t allow them to eat you up. While building your business, you’ll come up against plenty of wild things masquerading as real barriers. Take a lesson from Max.
Tell them who’s king of the wild things now.
And just for the record, I side with critics who say it’s not a kids’ movie exactly, but a gritty adult story about navigating through childhood equipped only with the power of imagination.
