Introducing Something New, Essay Example

Compelling quotes can inspire in two primary ways. On the one hand, we can read a quote and be motivated to think differently. The inspiring quote in this case gives us a new perspective on its particular subject matter, approaching a topic or event from this alternative horizon. On the other hand, we may read a quote and then relate it to our past experience. The quote becomes important or significant for us, to the extent that we understand its meaning on a personal level. The quote, in other words, becomes a perfect synopsis of something we have felt, thought or experienced. The quote, I have chosen, from Machiavelli is synonymous with this second effect of the quote, in so far as it crystallizes a past moment and renders it comprehensible in new words, telling us something we perhaps knew, but did not know how to articulate with such lucidity.

One such moment is not particularly significant, but nevertheless had an effect on me, to the extent that it clarified some aspects of human behavior. I was working at a warehouse as a shipper. Our responsibilities were to ensure that the packages from the warehouse went to the correct shipping trucks. After working at the warehouse for a few weeks, I noticed the utter insufficiency of the system used for shipping. It is not important to sketch the details of this system, but rather to emphasize that my co-workers had carried out their tasks in this manner for years. Thinking about how we could improve our efficiency as well as make our own lives easier, I suggested some changes to the previous approach. I was taken aback by the reactions: I was insulted for undermining the hierarchy of the workplace, of being too ambitious for a new worker, of stepping out of my bounds by making suggestions to change a system that had been in place for years. The attempt to introduce a new approach had been met with hostility and derision.

Some time later, I was looking at books and book reviews at the website www.goodreads.com. The site also has a section for famous quotes. I was struck by the following quote from Machiavelli which I stumbled upon: “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Certainly, the quote from Machiavelli is intended for a political context, as he was a political theorist. Machiavelli’s message is that an attempt to introduce something new, a new political system perhaps, or a new way of looking at things, is ultimately always a difficult task. Individuals are too committed to the standard way of doing things, hostile to new ideas, clinging to old values and presuppositions which they do not question. As Machiavelli writes, introducing something new does not guarantee success and this is part of why it is a risk: but introducing something new is also complicated by a stubborn resistance to new ideas.

The Machiavellian quote perfectly summarized my moment in the warehouse. At that time, I could not grasp the resistance to my suggestion. I thought it was above all an issue of me having been a new worker in the warehouse. Certainly, this is part of the reason: however, Machiavelli’s quote succinctly captures the notion that individuals tend to have an innate resistance to new ways of looking at things, of new ways of doing things. Machiavelli, with this quote, helped me better understand something I already understood, but could not fully articulate.

A past experience, which may remain vivid in someone’s mind, can be made even clearer through an encounter with a relevant quote. This is because the quote provides a more concise meaning to what may only be an experience that causes ambiguity or confusion. Machiavelli’s words motivate a way of understanding what perhaps we only know on an intuitive level.