Beauty vs Business – They flew me to Milan

Postcards from Rethink Central

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My name is Liz Scully. I’m a business strategist.

But before I started working with entrepreneurs

I worked in the TV commercials and film industry.

It was very lovely and back then there was lots of money in commercials.

One of my favourite clients called and asked whether I was available for a meeting in Milan. Funnily enough, yes I was. So off we rolled to Milan. Delightful. Business class. Me and the Creative Director.

We went to Ogilvy’s head office in Milan for a six-hour meeting

about a fancy wristwatch and how we were going to make it look good. Six hours. Horrendous. But they had great snacks.

As someone who’s easily dazzled by things, I was terribly thrilled by the fact they had these massive platters of huge chunks of Parmesan. So, in between us talking very seriously about this watch I was chunking down as much of this as I could.

As I was quietly – probably not very discreetly – filling my pockets with Parmesan and squirrelling it away like a little hamster,

one of the Creatives asked me if I had been to Milan before.

Well, no, I hadn’t.

They were aghast.

Everybody stopped to look at me.

There was a silence in the room. And I thought I’d created this horrendous gaffe. They looked at each other. They went into a little huddle in the corner. And they came back and said

’We’re going to stop the meeting.’

’I’m sorry?’ We’d only been there 3.5 hours at this point. We meant to have six of these.

Well, the fact that I hadn’t seen the Duomo was unacceptable.

To go all that way to Milan and to not see the Cathedral that wasn’t going to happen. They called me a cab, they poured me and the Creative Director into it and off we went.

Now, I truly admired that.

Because they knew that to have a life that has business but no beauty in it is unacceptable. And I really believe that if we overlook this side of ourselves,

if we don’t fill our minds and our lives with beauty, everything is not really worthwhile.

It’s great having lots of money but if you can’t look at a sunset or a beautiful piece of dance or a gorgeous Renaissance cathedral and understand it and take time for that then you really are impoverished in a really deep, soul-deep way.

So, here’s my invitation for you:

This week, take a moment to go and do something that fills your eyes with beauty. Whether that’s the theatre or an art gallery or natural beauty, whatever it is take time for it and don’t think of it as time off.

This is an essential part of being human and living well. Just like all of my clients in Milan had that feeling of you can’t possibly not do this. This is essential.

Work-life balance isn’t just about the hours you work and how you spend your hours.

Work-life balance is about that feeling of spending your time well.

It’s not just what you do for work.

It’s not just spending time with your family.

It’s filling your eyes with beauty.

That is my invitation to you. Spend time looking at beautiful things this week.

And if you have questions about your own business come along to one of my regular Q&A sessions. There’s a box below just drop your email in there. It would be lovely to see you.

Next live call is October 10, 2023 - Noon Eastern / 6pm UK.
Come along to ask your questions about launches, strategies for marketing, Masterminds or whatever you're stuck on in your business.

Add your email below and I'll send you the zoom info for the calls. See you there!

Or come say hello on Instagram here.  I microblog daily.