The finger pointing at the moon

Author, Speaker, Consultant: Ideas on Creating Profitable Customer Relationships

The finger pointing at the moon

Written on June 5, 2008 – 10:47 pm | by Steve Yastrow |

Sit in most business meetings, and you will hear opinions flying left, right, up, down and sideways. Corporate conversations are so frequently battles of opinion, and these opinions are often confused with the truth.

In reality, truth is elusive, and is always harder to find when obscured by opinions. It’s not that truth can’t be found, it’s just that we often confuse someone’s opinion for the underlying truth.

There is a Buddhist saying, “The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.”

Be careful not to confuse someone’s description of an issue with the essence of the underlying issue. See the moon, not the finger pointing at it.

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2 Comments - Add yours! »

Comment by Michael Martine Subscribed to comments via email

2008-06-06 09:49:23

One of my favorite sayings is a Zulu proverb: “There’s no such thing as truth, only stories.”

Great points, Steve!

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Comment by Jayakumar Hariharan

2008-06-15 11:15:10

As the seniors used to say when I started my career as a humble trainee journalist,

“News is sacred. Comment is free.”

Jay, from Bangalore
http://ideaburger.blogspot.com

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