Challenge the Ordinary

Chapter TwoStrategy Guides Passion

Mythology tells us that the hero Theseus overcame insurmountable challenges, like killing the half-man half-bull monster, Minotaur, and escaping from a mazelike labyrinth with the help of Ariadne, who held the end of a thread at the entrance to the labyrinth. Scholars have offered Ariadne’s actions as a metaphor for what leaders can do to help others escape the labyrinths of their own worlds: keep extensive records, and when you get lost, return to the last point of clarity and safety. Though Ariadne helped Theseus and others with her red yarn, this method will doom today’s leaders to an exhaustive process that merely allows them to solve problems—not make the bold decisions about the company’s future that will ...