We needed a new couch. So we bought a really gorgeous one.
Everybody loved it.
It was big, deep and comfortable.
And it was not inexpensive.
A while later we moved.
In our new place, the couch was too big to fit where we wanted it to.
So we put it where it would fit.
But it just didn’t feel right.
It dominated the room.
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine a Feng Shui master would have been horrified.
I do know anyone rarely sat on it, even though it was the same gorgeous, deep and comfortable couch.
But what could we do?
There was nowhere else to put it.
If we posted it on Craigslist, we’d get a fraction of what it cost.
And it had been used so little it was almost brand new.
So the couch stayed where it was.
And people rarely sat on it.
And a year passed, until one day we realized.
The couch that nobody sat on had become a room that nobody used.
A room we paid the mortgage on, heated and paid taxes for.
And it was completely useless.
So we gave the big ugly couch away.
And built some bookshelves in the space where it had been.
And put a comfortable chair next to the bookshelves.
Now it’s a different room.
People sit in the comfortable chair and read.
When we thought about how long it had taken us to figure this out, we laughed.
We saw the couch every day.
Eventually we didn’t notice it any more.
It had always been there.
It was the way we had always done things.
Even when it didn’t work.
To rearrange the furniture takes a bit of effort.
It takes a lot more effort to re-order intangible elements.
Like the elements that shape our lives and businesses.
And often the hardest part is identifying them.
