16 years ago, my boss handed me a small book with doodles all over it. I wasn’t a reader at the time and nobody had ever gifted me a book out of the blue. 

There is no way he could have known this would become my favorite book. There’s no way he’d know the impact Orbiting the Giant Hairball would have on me. It has affected how I approach every job, every employee, and my kids.

I have read the book maybe a dozen times, given away 10 copies, loaned the book to tons of people, used it when training employees, & referenced it when talking to dads about connecting with their kids.

The main idea is every organization becomes a hairball as it grows. There are tangles of rules, politics, and habits. To be successful as a creative employee, you can’t get trapped in the hairball (this will kill your creative soul). But, you can’t just shoot off into space (that’s called unemployment). Therefore, you must learn to orbit. 

There is so much more in the stories Gordon MacKenzie tells about creativity, freedom, leadership, and loving others…but I’ll let you read it for yourself.

After the first time I read it, I created a small model to put on my desk as a reminder.

All these years later, I still have the model. I have a different hairball in life, but the call remains-do great work, look past the horizon, and orbit.