Inside the Box, Outside the Box? What's up with either?

This has brought up some interesting conversations and some people have been surprised that I think of myself as an inside the box kind of guy! LOL, I've even been accused of trying to create an "out-of-the-box" type culture.

Case-in-point: Alethes and how we pay our loan officers - quick, fast, and everyday. Literally, we do a W-2 payroll daily. That is nothing but "out-of-the-box." Right?

Not true. It is as purely in-the-box. Creative, but IN-THE-BOX. There was a need - loan officers wanted to be paid fast - we could fill it. In the early days, that was easy - loan would fund, we would get a call, Paul would go pick up the check, and cut the LO a check; 1099 type compensation, nothing about bills being paid - real simple.

Today, it is a bit more complicated; W-2 wages, bills paid for proceeds, splits with managers, copy of file, uploaded and QC checks, etc, etc, etc.

But still, it was and is inside-the-box thinking; what's the need, can we fill it? Can we improve on it?

And outside-the-box? What's up with that? I love the idea, but it lives out too much as wishful thinking and leads to volatility. It reminds me of a horse my Dad had named Paco. That horse was never satisfied with anything on his side of fence. He had to have the grass on the other side and constantly got cut-up in the barbed-wire getting to it.

Our culture is about finding needs that we can fill and filling them to the best of our ability. As those abilities improve and/or deteriorate, we evalutate and correct to the best of our abilities.

Dream, but don't live in a wishing world. My Dad use tell me to wish in one hand and fill the other with sand and see which one filled up the quickest. Let's be creatively inside-the-box successful.

Head down, chin up.

Danny