Do you have a sacred cow holding you back?

According to Wikipedia, the term sacred cow is used for a person, institution, idea (often a theory) or ideology that is immune (usually unreasonably so) from criticism or opposition.

As I was wrapping up things at my job last week, a frustrated co-worker came to me to vent about a problem they had during a brainstorming session. The purpose of a brainstorming session, he (correctly) explained, is to get all of the ideas out, and then narrow them down based on their feasibility. The problem that they were having was that too many people had gone to the session with pre-conceived notions of what wouldn't work. So much so, that every time a creative idea came out, it was shot down. The results they walked away with were less than desired.

He went on to tell me that his biggest frustration in his professional career has been all of the sacred cows that he has encountered. I gave him the what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about look because I had never heard that expression before. He explained that every company that he has ever worked for (and probably every company in existence) has self imposed, unnecessary constraints that limit their problem solving creativity and ability to innovate. Frustrated, he told me that every once in a while you need to go out and slaughter one of the cows.

I couldn't agree him more. We all have sacred cows at our jobs and in our lives. It seems like successful people and successful entrepreneurs are able to recognize these unreasonable constraints, slaughter some cows, and discover new and better ways to do things.