Several things happened to me recently which reminded me that … the beauty in life comes from what also makes it messy.

I tend to be an organized guy, so it doesn’t feel comfortable when I’m dealing with things outside my control. I like to have a plan.

But I was part of an event organizing team recently, and the event was truly amazing. Yet it wasn’t as structured and tightly controlled as I would normally prefer. So why did it work so well?

It’s because the team had a very clear vision of what we were trying to pull off. Not only the organization of it, but also the big WHY, the benefits to participate, the feelings and mood.

Squishy stuff.

Within that “container”, then, we put in lots of flexibility. We had networking time, thinking time, even undefined time. And the result was just beautiful, because we were all headed toward the same result.

So when we started out a few minutes “behind time” because of the weather, it was totally fine. That turned into unstructured networking time for the people who were there, and we went with it.

When we had to get some additional food because of the number of participants, it was totally fine. When we had to scramble to put up some additional signs, we just jumped in and did it with no great anxiety.

What it comes down to is this: Life is messy, as is business. If you can embrace that uncertainty, then it can become beautiful.

The best vacation my family ever had was 3 solid weeks of unstructured time travelling down the east coast of Australia. When it rained, that became part of the experience rather than an annoyance. When we were too tired to do much of anything, we just hung out and enjoyed the day.

It was messy, I suppose. And it was amazing.