It's easy to consume.
Read email. Watch a movie. Channel surf. Sit in a meeting and listen to other peoples' ideas but don't really participate. Dial into a conference call, turn on the speakerphone with your end muted (the modern equivalent of the cloak of invisibility) while you surf the web or read email instead of really engaging in what is happening and adding to the dialogue, ideas, or content.
It's much harder to produce.
Successful people, influential people, interesting people, produce things for others to consume. They are producing breakthrough ideas and acting on them to get results. They participate in meetings and add to the content. If the meeting is poorly run and a waste of time, as so many are, they are doing something to make sure things are better next time.
Please don't get me wrong; there is a productive activity that is neither producing nor consuming.
Its called preparing. The problem is that often consuming looks a lot like preparing. People waste a lot of time fooling themselves that they are doing the one when really they are doing the other. (This happens all the time with attendees at conferences and trade shows.)
After days, weeks, or months of consuming, will you be any closer to your goals? I'd rather be a producer, wouldn't you?
