Ordinary fool

It could be said that an evangelist sells something that doesn’t necessarily sell itself to people who haven’t necessarily asked for it. My friend T sells knowledge management tools. He believes that knowledge management is the key to better business. My friend has a bit of the evangelist about him and I enjoy listening to his ideas very much. Identify even. As fellow evangelists we were debating how, and how much, customers really perceive and understand the benefits of knowledge management. Do our customers actually know what they are signing up to? Or, do we horse-wrangle our customers into our view of “how things should be”? I heard myself giving some advice. I said, “Don’t live your dreams through your customers”. But now I’m thinking about it some more. Could I be happy just leading customers to technologies that take water from trough to mouth, or do I want them drinking too? It would be much easier if horses spoke for themselves.