Since the advent of the Amazon Kindle, however, this has become something that is second nature. I don’t think it odd, and, with the ready access to who-knows-how-many books and samples I carry around, it just “is”! Much lighter, and a bit easier to keep track of where I am in each one….

This has allowed an enhanced creative journey for me. I read several kinds of books, according to my mood and focus…right now I am in the midst of:

…along with a couple of physical books (I have an enormous number of them that I either haven’t read yet, or return to regularly…):

This process has, over time, allowed me to combine several streams of thought that both compliment and collide with each other. Sometimes the biggest challenge is when I arrive at some kind of illumination or realization. It can be hard to figure out just which influence pushed me over the tipping point. I find that it is usually a factor of time and letting things “simmer”. As I allow each of these voices to enter my internal dialogue, and I listen, I arrive at an internal question that is “the right question” for the moment.

That’s where I am today. I am paying attention to the combined voices of Ger, Mark, Will and Dietrich, along with the work On Dialogue by David Bohm I just finished and the facilitating voice of Valeria Maltoni. They have raised the questions I have about loyalty, customer advocacy, and the roles of dialogue and community in business and life.

We are holistic beings. We like to think that we can, and do, compartmentalize our time and our lives into:

Whether we see the dotted line as where we are, who we’re with, what we’re physically / mentally doing, the level of enjoyment we are experiencing (or not…), it is still our life. This singular thing. And what we learn and incorporate on one side of this dotted line can easily manifest itself elsewhere, with a bit of thought and creativity. That’s one of the reasons I write so much about relationships and dialogue for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Developing these skills, whether for use in business or in personal / professional relationships “away” from business, will have the overall effect of making us all more human with each other. I see this as a shrinking part of much of our society, especially when we “segment” the parts of lives.

How can we treat and relate to family one way, colleagues another way, acquaintances another way, strangers another way, and even people we feel neutral or negative about another way? As a business, all of these are potentially customers. As a member of humanity, all of these have common existence with each of us.

This article is a bit of a soul-bearing for me. This is a landscape I feel very deeply about, and will continue to evolve in and go deep on over time. You will be reading about it here, as well as in other media, as I figure out the direction to go with it.

In the meantime, please let me know in the comments if this resonates with you and your business, especially as you work to figure out how to move in this world of off-line and online confluence, dialogue, and building the kinds of trusting relationships that result in a good business and a good life.