While I was making calls this afternoon, I notice something had changed in the view outside my window. From from my vantage point on the 24th floor of our high rise building, I can see a lot of activity in the downtown core. Today I noticed that an older, much shorter brick building about 8 blocks away is being torn down. I'm guessing they are using some sort of wrecking ball. About one quarter of the building is caved into a pile of brick and mortar rubble. It seems like a slow and painstaking way to take down a building. It would be much faster to implode the building from the inside than to hack at it from the outside. That got me thinking about how organizations get destroyed. Forget about the external factors: competition, the economy, the value of the dollar, regulatory issues, labor shortages, supply chain problems, etc. Organizations are chipped away at by those issues. They're brought down rapidly from internal issues: poor leadership, faulty decision making, shaky ethics, malfeasance, turf wars, etc. I suppose it's the same for individuals. It's not your boss, the marketplace, competition or corporate policies and practices that take you out. It's what's going on internally. Broken relationships, poor health, compromised values, emotional distress. Those are the issues that will sideline you faster than anything else. Sure, keep your eye out for errant wrecking balls but also make sure that you're taking care of what's happening on the inside. Any good sports trainer will tell you to strengthen your core first. It's good fitness advice and a fitting metaphor for life.