“No matter what business you’re in, to thrive you must fight the presumption that you know your customer.” As soon as you claim to “know your ideal customer” you’ve lost. You no longer try to impress, you develop a standard operating procedure, you try and stream line your operation at the detriment of your customer. […]
The most underrated thing you can do for your life is exercise. There are so many positive side effects to physical activity that it’s almost insane how we live our lives sitting at a desk for hours on end. We learned that in school, businesses thought it was a good idea too, “hey put everyone in cubicles!”. What a terrible idea that was. Read more
Change doesn’t “just happen”. In any environment forces combined to create friction or resistance which changes the environment over a long period of time. In nature, sacrifices are made to ensure the long term stability of the eco system. You can’t have change without sacrifice.
Change and growth don’t happen without some sort of friction.
If life is difficult that means you’re sacrificing short term gain for a long term payout.
I love the Hugh McLeod quote of “choosing an easy life rarely ends up with much of either”.
The most successful people in our world made more sacrifices than everyone else to get where they are.
Have you ever asked a truly successful person about their work ethic? The vast majority of people who are a living success will tell you how insanely hard they had to work to get where they are. It was all about the sacrifices they were willing to make.
Change in your business is just like change in your life. You can’t get physically fit by saying you’re going to workout and eat better. You get physically fit by doing something difficult. By changing your daily routine, working out for two hours a day and eating right. Fitness isn’t easy (for some it is, not my fat ass) but anything in life worth having is worth working for. With hard work comes the results. Like in fitness, like in work.
So you want to make a change? Kill a sacred cow, it’s the easiest way to create change. From the book The 
Chaos Imperative Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack tell the story of when Mayor Bloomberg was first elected Mayor of New York City he didn’t like how everyone worked so closed off from each other. His solution to create a change? Move his desk down to the second floor, right in the middle of 51 NewYork City staffers. His desk wasn’t any larger than anyone else’s. Every cubicle wall on the second floor came down, effectively making the Mayor’s perfect open office space. It even got the nickname Bloomberg’s ‘Bullpen’.
Sacrificing the privacy of a cubicle was the perfect way to create an open workspace.
So you want to make change in your life? What are you willing to sacrifice? What are you willing to give up? Better yet, what aren’t you willing to give up? Maybe if you start there you’ll understand that it’s your own life style that’s actually holding you back.
