Dear Master Malstom
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to place what you learned about Disruption, Blue Oceans and business in general on the internet, instead of making it a private study.
You at first sparked my interest in why products fail and succeed with your articles on the Wiikly, then turned this into my passion with your blog and longer format articles.
I devour and re read almost everything up there. It’s always a pleasure reading your articles and they never fail to make me look at things in a new way.
I’ve been content with being a programmer for a while, as I work for a really great consulting house that really cares for its people, but I was stuck in a rut and wanted to do more.
I’ve been working on documents which explain Disruption and Blue Ocean, as well as analyse the IT market in South Africa and emailing these around to upper management as well as having many discussions with them.
Today I’ve been asked to record a video with a short presentation on these ideas to be presented to the highest level of technologists and management in the company and it’s a step towards a dream of doing this full time.
Your articles have changed my life completely and have given me direction and passion. I don’t know how to thank you enough.
I am stunned that you had this experience. And I am deeply humbled by your praise. The words count.
The only way to respond to such an email is to point to Clayton Christensen’s latest book. As some may know, Christensen is getting up there in age and was, at once, diagnosed with cancer. When people know they are going to die, they say the wisest of things.
Christensen’s latest book, and perhaps his last, is based on this recent article: How will you measure your life? Scott Anthony writes about what makes Christensen different from other people here.
I have no idea if the emailer has read Christensen’s latest work or not. But if he hasn’t, I suspect he doesn’t mind me pointing others to him.