Four years ago while driving to the family farm, a strong phrase entered my thoughts. The words were so powerful and profound that I pulled my car to the side of the road and wrote these words, "Ignorance often comes disguised as tradition." Was this sentence a spiritual leading from God that would affect the rest of my life or was my mind simply playing tricks on me?

As I began to examine my time on earth, I realized how bound I was to my own traditions. Eras do not change often but here I was, almost fifty, watching the industrial age transform into the information age. Would there be some connection to my livelihood of construction and development, an industrial era vocation, being abandoned in favor of a new information age job? "I hardly know how to turn on a computer," I thought.

In November of 1997 I was unexpectantly forced to close my 125 employee construction business due to radical changes in the local market. Remembering those profound words from only several years earlier, I sought and found refuge in the commercial real estate industry by focusing on an unattended service in the industry. Utilizing the Internet, database technology, and a twenty-something's technical skills, one of the most unique services (on-line) in our industry was created. Though this new creation has yet to prove itself financially, I am optimistic its success is imminent: Not so because of a novel idea or even the niche into which it fits, but rather, the death of traditional thinking that has now spawned new life.

History will no doubt prove that the great thinkers of our time were those enabled to break free of traditions and eras and allow their imagination to steer their destiny.

Copyright: Clay Sikes 1999