Ep 43 | The 3 Essentials Steps to Making a Change

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 today's topic. Today I'd like to talk about change. The ability to make change. I'm gonna start by telling a story. I want to talk about a company that many of you probably have heard of. The company is called Schwinn. Schwinn, like the bicycles. Schwinn, years and years and years ago, if you go all the way back, now this was a company that unfortunately filed bankruptcy around 1992, 1993, though the brand still exists today. They had filed bankruptcy, but they were about 100 years old by the time they had filed. It was probably the '30s, '40s, '50s, Schwinn was one of the most well-known brand names in all of America. As a matter of fact, around that time, I think the rankings were in terms of like brand notoriety, it was Marlboro, it was Coca-Cola, and then always in like the third slot was Schwinn. As a matter of fact, the joke apparently back in those days, I was not alive during this time, but the joke was if your parents didn't love you, they bought you a Huffy, right? Now Huffy's obviously a very popular brand as well, but that's how dominant Schwinn was at the time. Anyhow, Schwinn hears of this guy in the '60s, '70s, it was early '70s, a guy named— or I'm sorry, maybe late '60s— a guy named Gary Fisher who lived in Northern California somewhere, who had apparently been going through the salvage yards and picking up junk, had found an old Schwinn bicycle frame and had decided to throw bigger tires on it, and he would ride this new bike that he created downhills. So he was riding this, this, this bike, this Schwinn frame on bigger tires, downhills. And the oversized tires and the frame itself allowed him to go downhills at a faster rate, and more importantly, without falling, falling less than what the other teenagers or young people at that time were experiencing as they were riding their bikes downhill. Now, What does this matter for what we're talking about? Schwinn actually goes out, finds this guy because they heard about him because he had built a bike for himself, he'd built a bike for everybody, suddenly he's building dozens and dozens of bikes. People are talking about this guy Gary Fisher building bikes, and Schwinn execs go out to visit with them and they see this long-haired hippie-looking kid riding this thing he was calling a mountain bike and said, you know what, this mountain bike is never gonna be anything. What Fisher had in mind was a gimmick, and they ignored him, and they thought he'd never amount to anything. Which, by the way, was what— I can't remember what airline it was, but when they met with Richard Bronson, they thought that he was gonna amount to nothing either because he was long-haired and hippie-looking. But anyhow, Schwinn ignores Gary Fisher, and mountain biking, as you might imagine, suddenly takes off. It wasn't until 7 years after the meeting with Gary Fisher that Schwinn decides to finally respond with the mountain bike. And this would have put it in, in the early '80s. By the early '90s, Schwinn was now a 97-year-old company at the time. Was on the brink of financial disaster and ended up filing bankruptcy. Now, I'm not here to say that the decision to not move on the mountain bike was the straw that broke the camel's back. There was a series of other bad decisions made by Schwinn that led to its demise, but I think the culture that was created, the inability to change, or I should say the unwillingness to change, jeopardized the company, buried the company. So Schwinn was not— it wasn't that they were unable to make the change, they were unwilling to make the change. And by unwilling, what they were really saying is, "We're okay for now, we got this." So why this story? Well, I want to talk about change. I want to talk about the essential steps I think that it takes to actually make change. Number 1, as we learned from the Schwinn story, you must be willing to make change. And there's a big difference between being unable to make a change and unwilling to make a change. Unable, by definition, simply means I physically am not able to do so. I don't have the resources, maybe don't have the capability, you know, just don't have the bandwidth don't have what it takes to make the change, like, like literally don't have the ability. But then unwillingness is different than that. When you say you're unwilling, it's, it's saying that I may be capable, I may have the resources, you know, I may, you know, have the opportunity to do if I desire. It's simply saying I'm unwilling to try. I don't have the desire. And so essential step number 1 to making change, you gotta be willing to make that change. Number 2, in order to make a change, the essential step, the second essential step, you gotta have a better solution or a direction to change to. So number 1, gotta be willing to make the change. Number 2, gotta have a better solution or a better direction to change to. And then number 3, you got to be able to execute that direction. In other words, you got to have the discipline to make it happen. So quick recap, if you want to change— let's talk about business specifically— if you want to make a pivot, a change in your business, number 1, you got to be willing to make that change. You got to be honest. Am I willing? Number 2, you got to have a better solution or a better direction to change to. And then number 3, You've got to be able to execute that direction. So in summary, what are we really saying, or what am I asking you? I think first, are you unable or are you unwilling? That's a big focusing question. Am I unable to make a change or am I simply unwilling? Am I set in my ways? Am I coming up with reasons as to not to make the move, or am I even acting as though I'm unable, but really I'm just unwilling? Another thing to think about here, think about here, in my opinion, there's no real replacement for intellectual honesty. What is intellectual honesty? Intellectual honesty really involves a willingness to acknowledge and confront your own biases, your own preconceptions, your own limitations, and to critically evaluate the information and arguments from all different sorts of perspectives. So intellectual honesty is a look in the mirror and being willing to confront, you know, these biases that maybe you concocted to justify your behavior. And the last thing, I think in summary, in tying out these essential changes, or the essential steps to change, and what we learned from the Schwinn story, You know, I know we've heard this term, there's even a book, Built to Last. I would challenge that a little bit. I don't know if it's built to last as much as it is we should be built to change, right? Because a lasting company is not one that's rigid in its behavior and its approach. It's one that's adaptable and willing to evaluate new paths, new opportunities, and willing to make change. When a better solution or direction is identified, and then puts forth the effort, has the discipline to make it happen. So the focusing question for you, both in your business and your personal world, where do you think change is necessary? And are you willing to make that change? If so, what What would that change look like? Is it a better solution or direction? And lastly, do you in fact have the discipline to make it happen? So contemplate change in your world. Not saying stray from the course if in fact what you're doing is effective. But if you think it's time to pivot, if you think it's time to look at things a little differently, well, evaluate where you stand with respect to these essential steps to change. Are you willing to honor them? 'Cause if you're not willing to honor them fully, then you're probably gonna waste a lot of time. That's all I have for you 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.