Outside Matches Inside

The human mind is full of contradictions and paradoxes, which come about from beliefs about the world... the belief that all people are self-serving and wicked can exist alongside live and let live, in the mind of a single person. The deeper these beliefs dig in, the more conflict will arise both within the mind, and in outer experience. Following this line, entrenched belief systems of a company's leaders play a huge role in brand personality – so much so that they strike at the very core of a company's intentions. Consequently, this lack of emotional and psychological self-awareness often results in the best intentions working against best interests.

For example, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, had many ties to the deaf community: his mother was deaf, he married a deaf woman, and befriended Helen Keller. But his strong opposition to intermarriage among deaf people, from fears about "contamination" of the human race by propagation of the deaf (even though statistically more deaf children are born by hearing parents) casts a pall over all his well-meaning schemes to 'improve' the world, in relation to the deaf. Thus, his school for deaf and hearing children failed within two years. His first national census for the Deaf in 1890, a great achievement, has a sour taste to it when considering his opinion of the deaf. The same can be said for his "Beaureau Volta," continuing today as the Bell Association for the Deaf, which in its language and efforts make deafness appear as an affliction that needs to be corrected, by things like cochlear implants and speech therapy. I'm sure Bell's self-contradicting marriage was a peach, too.

To this day, the Deaf Community, which considers itself a minority culture like any other, holds resentment and anger toward Bell, for his efforts toward them. So the very audience the Bell foundations and family seek to serve, do so by alienating the majority of it. What are left are parents of deaf children who don't know about the larger, welcoming, normalized culture that exists for their children, who see deafness as a problem, rather than simply a character trait.

Consequently, the Bell organizations work outside of and without the endorsement of the greater Deaf Community, and the efforts of the Deaf Community, to be accepted and seen as valid, are complicated by Bell's efforts.

This conflict all stems from Bell's belief system that deafness is a problem, institutionalized in an organization, and contnued by like-minded individuals. Now the situation is much more complex than what can be covered in a blog entry. However, denying the importance of, or worse, ignoring the existence of the belief systems at the heart of your business can result in major unintended conflicts when you take it to market.

Taking a deep look at why you want to go into this or that business is just as important as figuring out how you'll go about it.