Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. – Albert Einstein
If you noticed the image on this post, it’s of an umbrella that is combined with a leash…a dogbrella. So if you’re like me, huddled over your dog holding your umbrella trying to get him to do his business in the rain then rejoice because someone else has invented something for you. (And it’s available on Amazon!)
Have you ever stopped to ask why you do what you do? Why do you stop on a red light and proceed on green? Why do you wear the clothes or uniform that you do? Why do you check email? Everything you do from the utensils you use to eat your morning breakfast, to the clothes on your back and shoes on your feet, and even the rules you follow for getting yourself to your job…all of this was invented. We take for granted everything we encounter and often struggle to remember that at some point in history, all of these things did not exist. They were created by people with the foresight to think ahead and not be afraid to be judged or ridiculed or ostracized.
So apply this premise to animal rescue for a moment. All of the rules, best practices, and technologies you use today, were all invented. Think back to how animals were adopted before PetFinder existed? I’m sure many of you remember those days vividly. How on earth did people accomplish transport, fostering and cross-posting without Facebook or Yahoo Groups? All of these things were invented and someone before you blazed the path to what we know as reality today.
What is possible if we stop for a moment to think crazy. Pokemon Go didn’t exist a year ago (and some wish it didn’t exist today), and autonomous driving cars were only things on the Jetsons until recently. Then why are we unable to breakthrough these paradigms in the animal rescue and welfare world? Why are we so reliant on practices, ideas and technologies of the past when we have the collective experience of hundreds of thousands of brilliant minds?
What can we invent? What can we imagine? What will define 2017? What do you think…?
