The BIGG Successs Show
Ben Franklin Got It Wrong
Ben Franklin said nothing is certain except death and taxes. We think he got it wrong...not in the message, but in the semantics. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
- Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we say Ben Franklin got it wrong. - The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Change. And Mary Lynn, I'm not talking about the kind of change you get back at the store. - It's not like you get much back anyway. - That's true. I'm talking about things changing. And to a lot of us, just the thought of change sparks feelings of fear. - And I think part of that's because we're creatures of habit, and we work really hard to get to a comfortable spot, to feel comfortable, and we wanna stay there. - Well, Ben Franklin said nothing is certain except death and taxes, and we think he got it wrong. Not in the message, but in the semantics. We think he should have explicitly included change as something that is certain, rather than making it the implicit part of his quote. - Well, aren't we picking it apart? - Yes, we are. But yes, we all face change all the time. And even when it's changed that we're creating ourselves, sometimes that's a little scary. But it's especially scary when it's changed that we didn't ask for. For example, if you sit down with your boss, George, me, and you say, look, Mary Lynn, I've loved working with you. You've been great, but this opportunity has come along that I just can't pass up. - Okay. - All right, so that's change that you created. Now, what if I sat you down and said, George, I'm really sorry about this, but we're gonna have to make some changes and you're a part of it. - I see, I thought we agreed yesterday. We were gonna bring that up again. (laughing) - So, but you see the difference. - Yes, I do. - One you created, one you weren't ready for. - Well, Mary Lynn, I think that's exactly the thing. It's better to be a leader of change than a follower when you can be. - But George, you know, you can't always control this, okay? That's the thing about change, and that's why we don't like it, because change can happen at any moment. You know, prime example right now, the economy is probably causing changes in people's career. - Mary Lynn, without question, there are things that we can't control. We can only choose how we respond to it, right? But don't you think that much of change can be anticipated? - I think you're right, George. I think I'm gonna keep you on board. - Well, good deal. - But think about new technology, for example. That causes change. As technology continues to develop, change is occurring more and more rapidly. So isn't it safe to assume that in the future, this is going to continue? - I remember reading an article, Mary Lynn, that said that change was occurring a million times faster than our ability to comprehend it. - I believe it. - That's right, and it's only going to get more so, right? So you have a choice to make. You either develop the skills to anticipate change, so you get ahead of it, or you just respond to it after the pain becomes too great to do anything else. It's pain or gain. Do you want to do it when it's an opportunity, or do you want to do it when you have to? - I was thinking that was a new game. Pain or no pain? (laughs) How we Mandel can be the host. - That's right. - But it seems like a pretty easy choice, George. I want to anticipate it and get ahead of it. - Well, Mary Lynn, I think you made a good choice there. - Well, thank you. - Well, you know, with the subject of entrepreneurship, one of the things I talk about with my students is there's four key words, and one of them is change. And by every academic definition of entrepreneuring, change is part of it, either explicitly or implicitly. - So what you're saying is that big opportunities come from change. - That's it, exactly. - Man, I'm winning in this game. Coming up our big action item to anticipate change and find your opportunity. - Today we're talking about change, and Mary Lynn, let's talk now about how to spot your opportunity in the change. - There are two kinds of change. There are fads, and there are trends. Fads come and go like jeans. - A little hoops. - Yes, yeah. Don't worry about those. Trends are long-term, and you need to get on board with them. - Well, for example, let's look at your career. Think about the things that are affecting your industry. Now sit down with a patent paper, or you can do this in an Excel file. Divide your sheet into two columns. At the top of the first column, write down the word fad. At the top of the second, write down trend. Now start putting those changes into the appropriate column. - And think about the following questions as you're doing your lists. What will affect your future income? Something will, for good or bad, right? Is it a short-term phenomenon, or is it likely to continue? You can position yourself properly by seeing the change coming. What opportunities will be created? What skills will be important? Do you have them? Can you get them? - And as you go through this, you're able to start developing a plan for what you need to do to position yourself to take advantage of the change. - Now you might be asking, well, where do I get this information? - That's a good question, Marilyn. - All right. I was wondering myself. Well, we have a link on today's show summary on our site at bigsuccess.com, where you can find magazines specific to your industry. - And here's another way you can do it. Just go to Google, type in the name of the industry with the word association behind it. And Marilyn, we did an example of this. So I asked you for an industry. - I said beauty salon. - Beauty salons with the beauty salon association and just right there, boom, we had about a half a dozen associations. - So there are a number of ways to get the information you need, so you can embrace change rather than be grudge it. And you can find a written summary of today's show on our site at bigsuccess, that's bigwith2gsuccess.com. - Next time we help a business owner whose salesperson is making more money than he is. Until then, here's to your big success. - The big success show at bigsuccess.com. (crowd cheering) [BLANK_AUDIO]