Just watch these bad boys disrupt any classroom…
Why do I remember anything about river meanders?
I was a generally attentive student, but even I found river science boring. Our cheapskate school paid for windows that opened halfway instead of A/C and it was hot as heck’s front porch in the last days of school before summer break. Our teacher rolled in with an overhead projector and armfuls of topographical river maps and we all began looking for distractions.
A stack of leftover paper handouts was making eyes at us from the windowsill and the sterile white light of the overhead was blinding our teacher, so we did what any bored 13-year-olds might do: made paper bats & balls and had a featherweight home run derby. We’d probably knocked 40 paper balls out the window when I nailed a line drive halfway across the front lawn. Our poorly timed cheers drew a very angry rant from our teacher and a demand that I spend “the rest of class and as much time after school as needed” to find the ball I’d hit and bring it back up.
I hoped and prayed he wouldn’t look outside as I “searched” our paper-strewn front lawn for a ball that would pass for the one I’d hit. I brought it back upstairs and engraved every word of the rest of the river meander lecture on my heart and counted the minutes to the end of school and sweet, sweet freedom.
River meanders are actually pretty cool
They’re always moving. Without man-made prevention, no river will stay in place over time. This helps a river survive, as water finds more efficient routes to an outlet. It also creates new lakes in the meanders that have been left behind and deposits fertile soil all around. A river is a record of right and wrong turns, and even the mistakes can turn out beautiful.
Way on back in 1944 a rock- and map-lover (that is, geologist/cartographer) named Harold Fisk decided the best way to demonstrate the many paths the great Mississippi had taken over the last 1000 years was to represent them in a cornucopia of color. Take a look below:
The story of the Mississippi in brilliant color
The Mississippi does not flow how it did in the beginning. And most of us are not on plan A for how our lives were supposed to go. I think I’m somewhere in G or H territory myself. I bet you had a lot of clever ideas for your business that haven’t panned out. And some of the stuff that did work you just stumbled upon. All of it contributed to where you and your business are today.
You can learn from your successes and your failures. I think too many people hide their mistakes for fear they ruin the story you want to tell. It’s actually the opposite: a story of pure success sounds fake and connects poorly to your audience emotionally. Also, it’s just boring.
Every meander you’ve taken is meaningful
I never expected to use my knowledge of river meanders, but here I am, thinking about how much my life and the businesses we work with are just like rivers. They take good turns and bad turns, but always seem to get somewhere beautiful in the end.
Here’s to telling your full story to everyone who will listen, connecting with them in a deep, undeniable way, and delivering an extraordinary product or service that meets their needs. Oh, and helping you expand to your full potential.
Need any help figuring out just what your full story is? Reach out, we’d love to talk.