Change

Change is a constant. That about sums up my knowledge on this ball circling the sun. As it nears the end of another rotation for me (my birthday) I am thinking about change. I hope I am doing OK on the issue of change. I find myself skipping a lot of instructions for some things and just reading what I want to learn, rather than learning everything the new gadget does. I attribute that to time, not a resistance to change. I hope I am right.

What I see in my friends and family that are older and a few younger, is a resistance to change. That frustrates me as I attempt to help them. I have a friend whose business is going under, to some extent because they never adopted new business techniques. Their argument is email is not personal and a phone call is. I’ve never considered a phone call personal, at best an annoyance. Worst, I never get this client on the phone for days; they are always on the phone talking and are always days behind. They might consider email or texting or whatever to be impersonal, but it is a lot better than voicemail.

Change is important in your business. Not just the changes in the law I write about all the time here, but change in what you and your business need to do. Change in your customers. Can you expect them to come to the same section of whitewater year after year after year and not get bored? Change is needed for all of us, you, your business and your customers.

Resistance to change is also a major problem in a business. If you don’t look at changing and evolving and moving on, you will slip behind. I have a great client who from day one was working on his exit plan. He is working at putting that plan into place and doing so many years before either of us expected. He embraces and looks forward to change. He sees change as opportunity, not as something to fear.

Before law school I sold insurance. Every time we had a rate increase the insurance salesman would groan. We would lose customers as they went looking for cheaper automobile insurance. One agent always smiled. I asked him why and he said more money. We were paid a commission of 15% of the automobile insurance premium and any increase was more money in our pocket. That is called looking forward to change.

However what bothers me is the possibility that I may become resistant to change. That I get stuck in a world or a time and due to whatever reason refuse to keep moving forward, thus sliding backward. I am writing this as a reminder for me as well as you. I hope someone reminds me to read it. I am also writing this for my friends and my nieces and nephews. I think my nieces and nephews will end up being in charge of the issue of change. When I refuse to, it is time for the home basically. If I can’t embrace, not just accept and enjoy change it is over.

So nieces and nephews I want you to tell me about the latest and greatest. Whether music that I can’t understand the lyrics or gadgets or technology, it is your job to kick me in the butt and make me stay up with change. It will be your job to remind me to change. To accept change, to embrace, and to love change. To laugh at me when I refuse to change and to love me when I don’t want to change…as you shove my wheelchair over the cliff.