In the world of business and economics is an idea about innovation called “creative destruction.” You might have heard the expression “putting ourselves out of business.”
The idea of “creative destruction” originated in Marxist economic thought as a way to undermine capitalism — first you destroy the economy so you can rebuild it in a new image. In business, however, it’s more popularly used to refer to the idea of pursuing an opportunity in one part of your business that will have consequences in another part.
And sometimes “putting yourself out of business” can be a rather killer chess move and result in success.
In the 1990s, Hewlett Packard (now HP) was just another of many companies that sold consumer-level printers. Compared to laser printers, “inkjet” printers had lower resolution or image sharpness, but they were a lost less expensive. And I happen to remember HP’s inkjet printer was about $800, in part because I was close to the story as my then-wife worked on the project that became its “creative destruction” successor.
At the time these more affordable printers were “grayscale” — color printing was just too expensive for consumer-level pricing. But what HP did was to introduce a new, color inkjet printer at a price that was significantly lower than their own grayscale printer.
Conventional wisdom, of course, is that if color was more desirable, it would command a higher price, and this probably would have been true. Certainly HP wasn’t stupid enough to have missed this.
In fact, their later-discovered purpose revealed quite the opposite.
The new color printer, the 540c, was introduced at $549. Needless to say, they flew off the shelves, and HP vaulted into the leadership position in consumer printers. But they also slipped everyone an unexpected Mickey — those printers needed ink refills. And those cartridges, added up over time. Some of us spent more on printer cartridges than the printer itself. The move changed the world of consumer printing for both vendors and consumers. Much like the way vendors of men’s razors know you’ll need to keep buying blades, cheap printers and pay-as-you-go ink purchasing became the new normal.
This kind of massive change is what leaders call a “paradigm shift” — and change in the most foundational principles of how you see the world. But such a change isn’t just about ideas — ideas have consequences because thinking, feeling, and doing are all connected. A change of how you see the world at the most basic level usually changes how you behave, too.
The same is true for what philosophers and theologians call “worldview” — those foundational beliefs that undergird everything else you believe. And every worldview explicitly or implicitly tries to answer four or five basic questions:
Where did all this come from?
Why is there good and evil?
Who am I and what’s it all mean?
Where does it all lead? Is this all there is?
It’s easy to think that answering these questions is just about religion, but it’s deeper than that. These questions undergird every view of the world, even if it’s a-theistic or “spiritual but not religious” or “the Universe.”
It also challenges every single person with a question: “What is true?”
Even secular thinkers and skeptics posit that there are (at least) three tests for truth. In non-philosophical language, they are:
Is it rationally consistent? In other words, does it contain any contradictions (that could not both be true at the same time and in the same sense)?
Does it correspond to the real world? In other words, does it have comprehensive explanatory power that illuminates and integrates all things (e.g., science, philosophy, psychology, theology, etc.)?
Is it it livable and relevant? In other words, does it work in real life, both on the street and in our hearts?
To be fair, you know that I’m a Christian because it’s the only worldview that answers all these questions. And to be fair, I know there are many distortions of Christianity which create confusion. But here’s the big takeaway:
Christianity is not is another philosophy of life or religious set of rules to follow that promise some outcome if you do things just right. It’s a paradigm shift, a metanoia, that changes everything.
Christianity a relationship to a God who let us make our own choices, including those that broke that relationship to begin with. It’s about a rescue mission he launched, taking on human flesh, living a junk-free life, dying on a cross to pay a cosmic parking violation that we could never pay, and raising this God-Man Jesus back to life to conquer ultimate death for those who trust Him as Creator, King, Lord. It’s not about changing our behavior to get a result, it’s a paradigm shift that happens when we believe and trust Him for new life. We fall in love with the greatest of possible gifts from the greatest possible of givers. And when we fall in love, everything changes.
Ideas have consequences, including and especially those about the most ultimate life-and-death-and-the-universe things such as whether or not you will believe and trust Jesus. Everything else flows from there.
***
Want more stories? Use search to find them.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in communications, an award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. A five-time entrepreneur and certified John Maxwell Team leadership coach, his latest endeavor is For The Hope, a daily Bible and apologetics podcast and training company equipping on-the-go professionals with confidence and courage for marketplace relationships. On Twitter can follow him @RogerCourville and/or his podcast @JoinForTheHope, or get all updates by email subscription at www.forthehope.org.