How to not kill your business

Nobody likes change. Myself included. I don’t know how I survived 40 years on this planet without a phone constantly in my hand or pocket, now I feel something’s missing without one. And today I am accepting Artificial Intelligence into my creativity.

Change is life

Seasons change and the weather changes. Our bodies change and we grow, adapt and flourish. In business, methods change, processes change, fashions change and styles change. Name me a business and I will show you change.

In the creative field, it’s the ones who don’t accept change or who rely on their “business as usual” attitude who fall behind and become creatively frustrated.

But “business as usual” is the death knell of good business.

You can fight the tide and the currents or you can accept and grow with change. Here are few ideas to help ease the discomfort of change and keep your business alive and well.

Let go

Tenacity and stick-to-itiveness are healthy traits, but most of us suffer from hanging on too long to things that don’t work, ways that are old fashioned, cliché and not particular to us. Your fear of the future and the unknown has you holding on, white knuckled to your original ideas, closed to the expanse of possibilities that life has to offer.

Let go. Let go of your attachments and your misguided habits. Your preconceived notions of “the way it is” is the source of our frustrations and anxiety leads to fighting the flow of “the way it might be”.

Whatever is going to happen, surrender and let it happen. Let go, accept change and let the Universe do its job.

Run from comfort

The search for comfort and security rarely yields the desired fruit. By the time we reach 35 or 40, many of us have reached a ceiling, not the stars we initially shot for.

But anyone can hold down a job and the day shift is not you at your best. We want the easy way, but the easy way is a trap. Complacency is the enemy and settling down is settling for less than your goals.

Our desire for an easier life gets us stuck in a smaller one, judging everything by the comfort and ease it brings, not the trade-in value for our dreams.

We willingly kill time “just chillin’” while the muscles of our instinct and intuition grow flabby.

The brave ones—companies and individuals—who risk comfort and safety for a chance at beauty and meaning have the potential to attain more—to actually move someone.

There ain’t no rules

We love rules. We even look for rules, like a handrail to find our way around. We want to know where we stand. We seek structure to our floppy lives, so we ask: “What are the rules around here?” What we find are actually just strong suggestions of what you can and cannot do to fit within polite society. The problem with the rules is that they’re generally one-rule-fits-all. They promote conventional, business-as-usual thinking and don’t allow for the concepts of individuality or play.

Even in the commercial practices of architecture, film, theatre and business, there are rules as to how things are done. Not until we see those rules beautifully ignored do we come to a new, higher realisation of what is possible. Rules are fine for some and serve a purpose unless they fence in your spirit or lay in the path of your progress. It’s not necessary to “break the rules”, but it’s critical to make your own. Make your own rules, make your destiny.