Every week I ask myself why one of my favorite columnists,  George Will, is not reading my blog. Maybe I should use words like “obfuscate” or “bloviating” or toss in more references to baseball? It’s pride. A growing family of reading friends cannot make up for my being so exiguous to George.

For anyone writing a blog there are a number of analytical tools available to tell you how many people open  click through and forward what you write. I’m not interested in that. I scroll through now to see who is reading – not how many.

I want to know if the right people are taking the time to read what I have to say. I know that sounds odd but when you start writing you have an audience in mind.  In my case it was restricted to people engaged in Christian philanthropy. Instead I have found myself writing for a much wider and more diverse group of readers. My first response was to become even more focused on philanthropy but then I remembered something I read years ago.

Peter Drucker, the management writer, described something similar when he wrote in “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” about the “unexpected success” when a product or service finds a market it did not expect or even seek out. Some companies respond quickly and adapt themselves to the new opportunity while others actually resist and work even harder with diminishing results to reach the market they intended.

Macy’s, the New York department store did poorly for several years because it considered itself primarily a fashion store and was downplaying the growing positive effect of appliance sales. To the company’s directors these sales were an “embarrassing success.” It was only when they accepted the growth of appliance sales that they turned around financially.

Almost 80 percent of all antibiotics produced are used by animals. Yet, when veterinarians and the food industry tried to buy these drugs they met resistance from the pharmaceutical companies. Allowing the drugs to be sold for animal use was beneath them. When another firm bought the rights and marketed them directly to vets they discovered the most profitable segment of the entire industry.

IBM “lowered itself” to sell to the business market while Univac resisted the shift from their preferred scientific sales. Univac was ultimately absorbed into a series of larger corporations.

I suspect the demise of the early church in Jerusalem was due, at least in part, to the inability to accept the unexpected success of the Gospel among the Gentiles. That was not their intended market. Paul discovered it and adapted immediately.

What happens when you resist “unexpected success” because it is not the way it is supposed to be? You not only miss opportunities but, worse, you go out of business.

Drucker also said, “Changing your whole direction to take account of an unexpected success requires humility. If you are a company that has staked its reputation on a particular quality product but a cheaper less grand product has booming sales it is difficult not to view it as a threat because “The unexpected success is a challenge to management’s judgment.”

I understand that. So, it’s okay if George Will never reads my blog. Maybe that’s even an unexpected success. Maybe even a home run.