The Second Mouse?
Aargh. It’s been one of those weeks, with neither technology nor scheduling going quite to plan. But it has been a week with lots of interaction…And one thought that someone voiced really got me thinking.
You see, I love to come up with new ideas, and tend to feel rather guilty if I ever say or do something that’s not as original as it might be. (Even though statistically, many people who are what might be termed conventionally successful, in the business world and elsewhere, are that way because they model other people’s methods for success).
Yet something in me has always taken up the challenge of being always the first person to volunteer, or try something.
So, the phrase that was uttered to me this week really hit home. It was:
“The second mouse gets the cheese.”
(And it was such an alien concept, it even took a while to get my head round the rather unpleasant fact that this would be because mouse number one had been caught in the trap first).
So, does being the second person or entity to do something, work? Well, Microsoft weren’t the first to introduce a friendly interface…but love ‘em or loathe ‘em, most people would probably concede they’ve done alright. And we’ve probably all seen examples of situations where we (or our friends and family) rush in to help in a situation, or to conquer something, only to be beaten in the end by the more analytical person who stands back, watches your mistakes, and then sweeps the board.
It’s just that the concept of waiting, and of not attempting to go first, still sits strangely with me, even though that is what NLP modelling, to name but one technique, is all about. What of innovation, “striking while the iron is hot”, or “first-mover advantage”?
But this idea of being the second mouse makes logical sense. And strangely, I’ve got the chance to put it into practice with a couple of projects in the next week or so.
So, with trepidation, I’ll be testing it, as an exercise in flexibility, if nothing else.
More soon-and thanks for your patience in waiting for this post!
Clare
