That’s what’s being suggested by this new procedure being tried out by the military using a special powder developed to trick the bodies stem cells to start building tissue that is missing. The article also reports the researchers stating that if this works it could eventually be used to replace more complex organs that people might need replaced:

One day, he hopes, people with heart trouble will be told, “That’s OK. We will just grow you another one.

While I think the prospects of this are pretty cool. I couldn’t help thinking as I read the article: Let’s say this does work out great and there are no harmful side effects - Let’s say that this solves the problem in today’s society with not enough donor organs for people waiting for transplants -Let’s say this makes it possible for people who have lost organs/limbs due to disease or disaster get them back - truly that would be absolutely amazing and would be beneficial for so many people BUT think about some other consequences of this (not necessarily bad consequences but just things I got thinking about…)

• would people take more risks knowing that if anything happened to their body it could be replaced?

Momentum is a tricky thing.  It can be positive or negative.  Positive momentum is movement forward in the right direction, negative momentum is moving in the wrong direction.  Positive momentum leads to growth, negative momentum leads to death.  The more momentum there is the quicker either will happen.

Every organization has momentum - I really don’t believe there is any such thing as the “status quo”.  When you are maintaining the “status quo” all you’re really doing is slowing negative momentum.  Here’s the thing - negative momentum happens when you do nothing.  Positive momentum takes a lot of energy to get going and a constant addition of energy to keep it going.  The key to keeping positive momentum is to focus your energy on the right things:

• Identify the momentum killers in your organization and deal with them. Quickly.  The sooner you do so, the longer the positive momentum will continue and the less energy you’ll expend to keep it going.  This requires the ability to see down the road and anticipate the things that might slow your positive momentum.
• Identify the momentum builders and release them.  Ask the question, “What is keeping my momentum builders from building?”

By being unique, credible, worthwhile, and nice…

Unique is not different - it is standing out.  Different is just a nice way of saying, “weird”.  Unique is captivating not just attention getting.  Sometimes “weird” catches people’s interest - but uniqueness keeps it.

Credible means trust.  It is when expectations are met or exceeded.  Your uniqueness better be credible or there will be no repeats.

Worthwhile means value.  If what you have adds value to someone then you are on their map.  If you aren’t worthwhile then you aren’t on the map.  Here’s the twist - the more valuable the other person feels the more “worthwhile” you are.

Nice is more than friendly - it’s caring.  When you really care then you get on the map.

Are you, is your organization, your product, your business “on the map”?

My experiences with my webhost (ixwebhosting.com) the last year (and especially the last few days) have been abysmal. Really the only reason why I’ve stuck with them is because I haven’t had the time to research and switch hosts. Now I do. Probably next week I’m going to be taking the plunge and transferring all my sites.

In my opinion, what makes or breaks a company (or any organization for that matter) is customer support. Probably more than ever - word of mouth matters - if you have crappy front line customer support it doesn’t matter how stellar the rest of your business is - your business/organization will suffer.

So, here’s my list of what customer support should be:

1. Don’t keep me waiting.
Whatever way you offer support, long delays mean I get unhappy. Don’t have an answer for the question I’ve asked - write, “we don’t have an answer yet but we’re looking into it” but DON’T say/write nothing. In today’s world more than ever, time = currency. I’m not just paying money for your product/service but I’m also paying time because there was a problem. You better balance out that time in coming up with a solution!

I just read an interesting post by Seth Godin called, “Which comes first (why stories matter)“. In it, Seth points out the interesting relationship between the work we do and the story we have. Two points caught my attention:

The work is what people talk about, because it’s what we experience. In other words, the work tells a story.

Then a bit later he goes on to say,

…if you decide what the story is, you can do work that matches the story. Your decisions will match the story. The story will become true because you’re living it.

As I read this article I immediately thought of James 2,

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. - James 2:17-18 (NIV)

The Christian story is one that should have influence over everything the believer does and everything we do should flow out of the gospel narrative and how it has transformed us (the story). James articulates that faith (the story we believe in) is connected with the “works” we do and if there are no works then there really isn’t any faith.