Embrace Change - Get Up and Run!

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As the new year emerges, I found myself pondering what the new year will bring - not only for technology, business, and world affairs in general - , but also for the field of CRM.

I also find myself searching for a some inspiration and, possibly even more so, for a bit of motivation.

Inspiration...
I often find inspiration - and answers to questions of uncertainty - in famous quotes from the past.

I ask myself again - what will the new year bring with respect to technology, business, and world affairs and how will that impact the field of CRM?  I'm optimistic about good things happening this year, while still being a realist about the effort and struggles we all face as the economic picture slowly but steadily improves. But I'm not sure about a lot of specifics, and even more so than in past decades it feel like there is a lot of uncertainty about the future.

Suddenly an answer dawned on me - at first too simple, too obvious, maybe even a cop-out. But the more I pondered it, the more I realized I was on to something.

Change.... The new year will bring Change!

“There is nothing permanent except change” or my preferred translation "The only constant is change"
 –Hereclitus  500BC, Greek philosopher.
 
"It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be."
- Isaac Asimov

So, a couple of pretty smart people reaffirm something that is so obvious we often overlook it - change will always continue to happen.

Sounds like we better "Embrace Change"

OK, but how do we get inspiration from the fact that everything changes? All that change sounds unsettling, and it makes it hard to plan for the future after all. This is where the next part comes in...


Change presents Opportunity ....
Change means that we are presented with chances to innovate, we are presented with chances to improve and to do new and exciting things. We are presented with chances to succeed and also chances to fail. How fantastic (and inspirational) it is to realize we will at least have these chances.

I've always interpreted change as leading to chance occurrences and observations - which in my mind presents Opportunities.

"Chance favors the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteu

By extension then, it is by embracing change and not by resisting change do we prepare ourselves to take advantage of Opportunities.

"Opportunity favors the prepared mind" - Todd Hardin, blatantly ripping off Louis Pasteu


Motivation....
OK, so we know change is inevitable and change will present unique chances that we might take advantage of. If we embrace change, then we are prepared to spot those chance Opportunities.  Hmm... now we need a little motivation.

I'm a fan of positive motivation, but occasionally a bit of fear helps snap you into motion as well.

A favorite African Proverb sometimes help motivate me to get it into gear and run after those Opportunities each day...

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

The moral...
It doesn't matter if you're a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running!


To sum it up:
Change is inevitable and presents chance occurrences - Opportunities.

Knowing that there will be Opportunities available is inspirational, so we wisely embrace change and prepare ourselves.
To help spot those opportunities, it doesn't hurt to get the jump on others - so when the sun comes up, we better be running!

Have a fantastic 2012 everyone, and may change present many interesting, exiting and profitable Opportunities to you.