---
title: "Daily Inspiration: “The thing about sandcastles: you’re never in danger of repeating yourself!”"
canonical: https://jimcarroll.com/2019/02/the-thing-about-sandcastles/
updated: 2019-05-02T00:56:59+00:00
---

# Daily Inspiration: “The thing about sandcastles: you’re never in danger of repeating yourself!”

“The thing about sandcastles: you’re never in danger of repeating yourself!” – Futurist  Jim Carroll

![](/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Sandcastles.jpeg)

I’m on a beach! There are no buckets and shovels! There are no little kids! There is no havoc!

It’s kind of weird!

Which tells me 3 things: – I’m definitely older, as we are at a Sandals Resort with my sons and their girlfriends, and they are no longer children, but young men! – my goal of writing an epic daily quote post about our epic sandcastle that was built yesterday would be a fraud, since there are no buckets and shovels with which to build one! – but my original quote of writing my daily about sandcastles is still worthy, as it is one of the best blog posts I ever wrote!

The quote? You know that observation attributed to (but not by) Einstein: If you keep repeating the same routine and expect a different result: that’s insanity! It certainly fits for sandcastle building!

Consider the field research I have previously made with sandcastles: 13 years ago, I made it into Business Week Magazine – not for some deep complex business insight, but for my blog post, “Why Innovation Thrives in the Building of Sandcastles!” Why? Because while my sons & I built them, I thought about the unique innovation & creativity lessons that came about as result!

It was a good, concise overview of the unique innovation and creativity ideas that come from such an effort, such as: – hierarchy has disappeared – creativity is implicit – If it doesn’t work the first time, do it again! – experience doesn’t cloud insight – everyone picks up on the passion – feedback is instant – the competition is easily scoped – no idea is too dumb – the reward is clear – it’s fun!

Think about the hierarchy issue, in which I wrote: “In most cases, there isn’t a boss, a reporting structure, or anything else that can cause organizational sclerosis. People just pitch in and do what needs to be done. The lack of a hierarchy is implicit to most successful teams.” Sandcastle innovation! It’s a thing!