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I'm reading a novel from David Lodge, one of my favourite authors. His books are often about academics (as he is/was before he retired to write novels) and this one is about a man who is a lanugage/linguistics academic in his early 60s who is noticeably going deaf. It looks at the realities of deafness and the challenges presented in social and professional situations when you are literally unable to decipher what is happening around you, even with hearing aids and other resources. Ironic for someone whose career has been about deciphering language and messages.

The book's title, which works brilliantly in English, is Deaf Sentence. However, as the author points out in his acknowledgement, this title is extremely hard to effectively translate into other languages, even poetic or well-known ones.

It has made me think about how well our work 'translates' into other areas of business and how successfully we communicate with people outside our usual niche or market segment. Sometimes we are excellent at something, eg writing, but only when writing something for advertising, or for technology or for children. Of course it is good to have a specialty but are there times when we close off opportunities because our language or our objective is too narrow, when we actually have the skills needed to cross into slightly different territory?

Meanwhile, I will keep happily reading Mr Lodge and pondering this question in my own business and in life.