“Things won’t change as much as they will accelerate. While other crises reshaped the future, this crisis is making the future happen faster.” — Scott Galloway
You see it happening all around you. The impact of new tech, new thinking, and new behaviors are changing the way we work, buy products, have fun, move around, etc.
At the end of the day, some people will accept, absorb, and move forward. The rest will be left behind wondering what happened. How do you keep up?
Acknowledge that change is happening all around you.
It will dramatically affect where you work and what you do. The old rules are slowly eroding and are being wiped away with the new realities. Work at home, work anywhere, management, leadership, and productivity are all changing the old behaviors of work.
We’re seeing this happen at higher education right now — the world of college is quickly imploding. The era of parents spending ungodly sums of money for the ‘college experience’ is now revealed as a nostalgic romp that we all have tried to hold on to. A new way of learning is going to emerge (emerging now) and it will eviscerate the idea of a $60K/year academic ride.
Once you embrace that change is happening all around you and you need to get ON the wave and not to FIGHT IT, you will begin to see the myriad of options and opportunities open to you.
Develop an unlimited mindset.
You have to have an open mind to all possibilities when it comes to the world around you. An unlimited mindset will fuel a new, consistent behavior of focused confidence. People who embrace an unlimited mindset will emerge from any crisis better off than when they entered.
We’re seeing this happen with Wall Street and Tesla — the old guard has been trying to denigrate and demolish the idea of EV transportation for years. “It’s a failed technology, they’ll never turn a profit, they can never compete with the ICE monopoly.” Time and time again, the analysts and speculators who went against the tide and shorted Tesla stock have awakened to a new reality (watch this).
To develop an unlimited mindset, you have to open your mind to what is happening and where you really are going. This takes an extreme amount of confidence, new knowledge, and vision. Stop playing tennis with the same players and start running to where the ball is going to be (read this).
Start Taking Action.
Finally, you need to get off your butt, develop a new plan, and start taking ACTION — don’t be afraid. There will be a lot of people out there that want everything to go back to normal — but that’s never going to happen. Smart people realize the rules have changed and the old Monopoly board we’ve been playing on is now three-dimensional, turbo-charged, and the banker is no longer in charge.
If you’re currently employed (or in transition), start learning who are the REAL movers and shakers at your company, competition, and industry. Who are the stars who are blazing a new trail, taking chances, and growing a small group of ardent followers? If you own your own business, what has changed in the past six months? What is happening to the behaviors of your clients, customers, (and competition)?
Wrapping It All Up . . .
There are two realities that are diverging and I am valiantly working with all my clients to help them better understand each one:
Reality #1 — Keep doing what you’re doing. Hope to the heavens we will all come out of this crisis unscathed and all will go back to normal. Good luck with that one.
Reality #2 — Acknowledge that massive, structural change is happening all around you, develop an unlimited mindset, and start taking focused action.
It’s your decision.