Shift Happens

I recently read this article (Why the Rich Get Richer - Robert Kiyosaki) and thought that he offered some interesting observations. Not that what he was saying was “rocket science”, but that he was offering his opinion on a path to success that reflected some of my thoughts on the issue. I wouldn’t even bother to mention the article except for the comments that are written below it by some of its readers. Many are very illuminating to the mindset of the writers. In general, the commentators who “slam” the article seem to be upset that somebody is questioning their paradigm (let’s see how much cheesy business consultant lingo I can spew.). They, the slammers, seem to have an incredibly narrow minded focus-“Workers of the world unite.” All of these business gurus can sound simple and they are certainly repetitive, but this doesn’t negate the useful information that their articles/books/CDs/etc. contain. In this article, the useful thought is that ideas should have an expiration date. “Shift Happens” Do you want to be ahead of the shift or behind the shift? Many of the negative commentators seem to be behind the shift and know it. They just don’t want anybody pointing it out.

In my business (I’m an employee working to be an owner), the real threat to employees is not jobs moving overseas, although some of that has happened, but technology. When reading industry literature, you notice that there are a lot of smart people working to take the mundane tasks that employees spend a lot of time on and automate them. When your business model is built on billing hours and those hours evaporate, you are in trouble. The savvy people that see this coming will be able to effectively redefine what they do with their clients and may ultimately be more successful than before. Those that don’t see it coming will disappear. These are interesting times. What do you think?

Quote from Sun Tzu

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

I believe this to be a true statement. In that, you have to act upon the opportunities that are presented to you and as you do so more opportunities will be revealed. Two factors hold us back from this action. The first is recognition. We frequently don’t recognize when opportunities are presented to us. We see events as set backs or obstacles to our success, not the educational opportunities they are, that can contribute to our future success. Secondly, we tend to be fearful of change/failure. Many who are very successful, by whatever definition you choose, have failed. Many of those have failed multiple times. Failure is not a problem. It is the response to failure that is a problem.