“If you want to know what is happening in the rest of the forest (and be in business fora long time), perch in different trees from time to time. Force yourself to travel to places you’ve never been before, shop in stores you never frequented before, eat in restaurants that you’ve never patronized, read books and magazines that are outside your specific industry, and attend trade shows of other industries.”

– Guy Kawasaki in Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services (1997).

How is this relevant to executives with attention deficit disorder? We can’t help but perch in different trees from time to time — sometimes from minute to minute!

Kawasaki’s point is this: our flitting about, our wandering, and our “aimless” explorations of new things are useful business traits. More importantly, Kawasaki is pointing out that many other business people should push themselves to do more of what we do naturally. In this, we have a competitive advantage.