Storytime with my two-year-old is one of my favorite times of the day.
It's undistracted on both our parts. The phone is far and the attention concentrated.
It gives me back some of the reading time I've lost post becoming a mom of two and then even more post mothering and freelancing in a COVID-19 world.
And some kid's books are just plain full of meaning. The kind of meaning that can knock you off your feet or spread over you slowly over a few days.
These are the books I will highlight in this series, starting with Holly Hobbie's "Toot and Puddle: Top of the World."
The story is simple. Two pigs are close friends and roommates. One day Puddle comes home to find Toot gone and puts himself in Toot's shoes to try to find him. He finally does, hundreds of thousands of miles away from home.
Toot says: "I guess I got carried away. I hopped onto a train and then a bus and then a plane and then a bicycle. One thing led to another all the way to Coucou Poche. I had a whim. How in the world did you get here?"
Puddle says: "The same way. I went looking for you, and one thing just led to another...all the way to here."
Toot responds: "That's how whims are."
This page hit me hard. It's bold to try to explain whims to a two-year-old. Isn't their entire life at this age a whim?
But Hobbie did it. She did it simply. And we all know simple is complicated.
Life is not prescribed. Following whims exercises our curiosity. It can introduce us to our new hobby, a favorite author, a friend. Toot and Puddle honored their whims and it took them on grand solo and joint adventures. They even hiked Mt. Everest!
From a business perspective, following whims can lead to our next big idea. It reminds me of the useful Implications Wheel I learned from Lisa Kay Solomon's Leading like a Futurist class. One thing leads to another until you land on the big or the small that sticks.
This is an example that imagines causal relationships tied to the autonomous vehicle trend.
Here's another thing I took away: Puddle was only able to find Toot because he understood his friend's heart and mind and the things that drive him.
Puddle led with empathy.
Isn't this what we all strive for with our end consumers?
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