It's
so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Remember that song? If not,
click here to listen to it on YouTube. If you do recall the song, do you
remember how cool they made it to sing A capella? Love it!
At
any rate, last week I wrote about the futility of efficiently doing
the wrong things. If you did not read last week's post, click here.
It
is true that it is difficult to say goodbye to yesterday. We are
hard-wired to resist change. Click here to read more on the subject.
Because
we are wired to resist change, and we hold on to the past, it is very
difficult to succeed as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are fundamentally change
agents. We make change happen. Which goes against human nature.
To
be a successful entrepreneur you must embrace change. And, to embrace
change, you must override your natural circuitry. Quite the conundrum,
wouldn't you say?
So,
how do we do it? Again, I will hearken back to the advice of Peter
Drucker. Drucker recommended, “Organized abandonment.” I have never
heard Drucker refer to the Status Quo Bias, but he knew that people
had a hard time letting go of the past. Especially past
“breadwinners.”
This
is what happened to the Kodak company. The jewel of Rochester, New
York is a dead company walking. Kodak held on to film, their past
breadwinner, for far too long. And, theirs is a particularly bizarre
story considering the fact that Kodak invented digital photography!
Those
who are able to let go of the past can create the future. This is
what Jack Welch did as CEO of the General Electric company.
Welch
used one very simple question, from Peter Drucker, which allowed him
to create the strategy that grew GE by leaps-and-bounds. What was the
question? The question was this, if we were not already in this
particular business, would we go into it today?
With
this simple yet elegant question, Jack Welch decided if GE was
not either #1 or #2 in any given sector, they would sell or close
that business. This was quite the radical decision because, as I say,
people hold on to the past.
To many people, Welch's
decision was so perturbing it earned him the label
“Neutron Jack.” It also helped General Electric succeed. Wildly so.
Being
that it is hard to say goodbye to yesterday, Drucker was dogmatic in
saying that we must be organized and systematic in our abandonment
efforts. Otherwise, the decision will always be shelved, for another
day, and it will never get done.
Drucker
would say every three years every product must be put on trial for
its life. Unfortunately, organized abandonment also applies to our
human products, our human associations. And, this can be enormously difficult.
As
we grow, as people, others around us make the choice to not grow. Or,
they choose to grow in a direction which is incompatible with our own.
This is when tough decisions must be made.
There
will be times when you need to cut people lose. I know it may sound a
bit savage but the market is not sentimental. What's more, we only get one life to live. Let's not waste it by staying stuck in the past. I wish you only the best.
