The Profit and Pain of Change

If anybody tells you that change is palatable, he is not telling you the whole truth. Change is painful, but change is highly rewarding. It is natural to keep doing things the way you have always done them. It makes life easy, but that is the shortest route to the city of stagnation.

As a consultant, I have seen people (especially business owners) struggle to adapt to new strategies and procedures. In fact, they usually grumble, fight, disagree, quarrel, and finally reject your ideas because they don’t want to go through the process of change. They prefer the familiar. They love tradition. Unfortunately, that is the easiest way to divorce future opportunities.

Many people avoid dealing with change. Employees, business owners, parents, leaders etc. avoid dealing with change. When challenges that requires adapting to new strategies show up, they pretend not to see it and just hope that things will remain the same. They simply wait and keep hoping that change will have mercy on them or just walk away.

You must understand that normal is gone. The new normal must be embraced and maximized. Business unusual is the new usual. Complacency has now become the enemy of victory. The safest, most fascinating place to be is out there on the edge of the cliff strategizing on how to maximize it.

This will exemplify the point I’m making. A great man said that when he was a kid, his grandfather told him that he used to love playing with butterflies. One day he watched a caterpillar shedding its cocoon. But it seemed to be having trouble and wasn’t making any progress.

So, in an effort to be helpful, he pulled out his penknife and cut off the remaining pieces of the cocoon. But rather than emerging as a precious butterfly, the caterpillar quickly died. The man later learned it needed to experience the struggle of moving through the cocoon to grow into a beautiful butterfly. And by preventing this from happening, he denied the caterpillar the chance to fly.

Turbulent times engender new seasons. Change will introduce discomfort just like a woman that is going through labor pain. But when the baby is born, the mother will gradually forget about the pain. The same thing is applicable to business, career and every strata of human endeavor. If you hate change you will not witness rapid growth.

Change Engenders Progress

To make progress in the 21^st century you must love change. You must learn to use change to advance in your business and career. Hoping that change will suddenly go away is an illusion. Change is here to stay. Change doesn’t even care about you; its job is to render you penniless and turn you into a beggar. You job is to surprise it and use it to your own advantage.

Whenever I tell people that things need to fall apart sometimes to move them out of the comfort zone, they feel I don’t want them to succeed. But that is exactly what change does. It pulls apart everything you are doing so that you can break out of your comfort zone and restrategize. That is what Covid19 has taught many people. Change doesn’t wait for you to be ready; it disorganizes everything and walk away.

Let me say it again, things really need to fall apart before they can be rebuilt. If the foundation of a house is faulty you can’t fix it while the house is still standing. You must pull down the house, fix the foundation and rebuild it.

Deep change is a purifier of sorts. It can tear down the foundations on which your thinking and way of operating have been built. Those old foundations need to come down to create space for a better and rewarding future.

During the transition process that lies between the old structures coming down and the new ones being put in place, it’s really a stress-filled, uncertain time. But it is like the caterpillar morphing into a beautiful butterfly. It looks like a mess, but something even more beautiful is being created. No wonder Richard Bach said, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls the butterfly.”

Part of the process of changing and growing is going from where you currently are to breaking down all you’ve known so you can step into the new phase of your life. You must be patient with the process of change. You will get to a point where you feel like throwing in the towel and go back to the old way you used to operate, but you should not give up. Gold must go through fire before it can become valuable.

Change is usually the beginning of new era. Disruption is usually the beginning of real improvement showing up. The old needs to be jettisoned in order to create space for the new and better result. As long as you are holding on to antiquated, obsolete and moribund ideas and strategies, you will never walk into the new season of your life. If you don’t open your arms and embrace change, you will not step into the next phase of your business, career and family.

Maximizing Change In Business and Career

While studying a certificate course at London Business School, a professor divided human development into four segments. One of the segments is Generation Y. How can a business owner creatively come up with a strategy to sell his products and services to a generation that spends a better part of their day on the smartphone? The answer to that question will determine the future of your business.

Let me be honest with you, some businesses will disappear within the next few years. Why? Because most business owners are fighting change. They want things to remain the way they are. They can purchase brand new cars but can never learn how to adapt to the behaviour of their potential customers.

I can literally shop from Alibaba right from my room. In fact, it is easier for me to shop from Alibaba that is based in China than to leave my office and spend the whole day in traffic while going to stores. It doesn’t make sense.

Reading is my hobby, and I don’t like buying pirated books. So, I have Amazon app on my phone, and Amazon created different options for me. Either I order the hard copy or download Kindle app, pay for the book and read it on my device. Business owners are adapting to the behaviour of their potential customers. Unfortunately, there are businesses that don’t have future. Time will render them obsolete.

So, what is the way out? There are three courses on our coaching program I want you to grab. Business Management, Online Marketing and Embracing the New Normal. Any business owner that wants to restrategize, maximize change, and understand the behaviour of Generation Y should sign up for these coaching courses right now. Call or chat with me with the phone number on the handbill below.