Ep 162 | Failure to Evolve

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I want to talk about failing to evolve, failing to adapt, and not just failing to adapt in business, but also in life in general. Now, failing to evolve can be a death sentence because the only thing that is in fact constant is change. We've all heard that quote before. The only thing that is constant is change. The decision to not adapt, the decision to not evolve, can absolutely kill your finances, can kill your relationships, can kill your health, could shut down your business. Not changing as the world changes, not changing as circumstances change, digging your heels in and crossing your fingers and hoping that things work out can really be detrimental. Now, the secret is of course knowing what, what in fact to change, and when to do it. Let's go through a few companies right now that, well, didn't adopt, didn't adapt to different scenarios, didn't change. First one that everybody loves to talk about is BlackBerry. Some people listening today probably have no idea what BlackBerry even is, but for many of us, probably remember that BlackBerry had about 3/4 of the, uh, the, the, the personal, uh, phone business. It was the dominant force well before iPhone and other players came into, came into the mix. BlackBerry had it owned, but because BlackBerry did not evolve and because they were anchored to or married to their current technology and believed it was the right choice, They dug their heels in, and as a result, Apple came out, iPhone came out with a keyboard and a tool in a phone that was dramatically different than what BlackBerry presented. Another company to talk around, how about Blockbuster? Always a great one. Blockbuster didn't evolve. Blockbuster was married to its brick-and-mortar store, its VHS, you know, and, and, and DVD rental structure. And then other companies like Redbox and Netflix showed up and started a different distribution network for movie rental. And that eventually evolved into streaming. Blockbuster was killed as a result. How about Toys R Us? Toys R Us was more than just a chain of stores. It was literally a destination where children's fantasies came to life. The story of Toys 'R' Us, however, teaches us that success in business requires not only nostalgia, but also adaptation and innovation, and they weren't innovative. Families, kids started finding different ways to go about getting their experiences and their toys. And the brick-and-mortar Toys "R" Us model faded. How about MySpace? So much more than a social network, it was a digital canvas for millions of people to display their personalities and their passions. But even pioneering platforms have to continually innovate to stay relevant. One of my favorite examples And the last one I'll give you right now is, is the company Kodak. Kodak was a pioneer in photography. They captured the moments that have shaped this world. Now, the common belief is that Kodak missed the opportunity of getting into digital photography. But that was not exactly the case. Yeah, they failed, but not because of lack of digital photography innovation. They actually got into digital photography and did a fairly decent job. It mastered the business of digital printing just as printing itself was about to be replaced by digital viewing. And the mistake that they made was the screens of digital viewing on an iPhone replaced photo paper, smartphones replaced photo albums, Social media posts replaced duplicate prints, and as a result, Kodak's world came tumbling down. So basically, Kodak had evolved but did not see, you know, what many would have said to be, you know, impossible to see. And they just missed the mark, and as a result, things came tumbling down. So So I'm sharing these examples because I want to follow that up with some questions for you. And I want you to take a step back and reflect on your world right now. What are some things that you are, that you are currently committed to in your business and your finances, in your health, in your relationships, that if you don't change, it could potentially cause you future harm? So what are some things that you are currently so committed to in business, finances, health, relationships, that if you don't make a change, you could potentially cause yourself some future harm? How specifically could these things cause harm and who would they affect in your world right now? So how specifically could these things cause harm and who would they affect in your life right now? Some pretty deep questions. If you fail to make change, what could be, what could be the harm and who does it impact? Last question for you. What are some alternative paths that you could adopt and adapt to that would help you avoid harm? So these questions I'm asking and the time I'm taking between these, these, these questions, I want you to think about them. I want you to process them. I want you to again, recognize that failing to evolve can be disastrous, can ruin your business, ruin your finances, ruin your life. If you are so dead set, heels dug in and unwilling to make change. And I ask the questions I ask right now so that you bring attention to the things that maybe you are so anchored to, you are so committed to, it's caused you to be blind around potential changes that need to be made. And as a result could potentially harm you in the future and harm others. So think around those things that you're focusing questions for today. Now, those that do embrace change, Those that do seize the moment, those that are calculated and strategic and take action, aggressive action at that, those individuals do more than just persevere. Those individuals thrive. Here at the No Days Off podcast, I want to see all in our nation thriving. That's all we have for today. The No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day, brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.