Why You Should Expect Your Business to Become Obsolete
Why You Should Expect Your Business to Become Obsolete
It’s tempting to keep business as usual, especially after a win. The success of Netflix, and entrepreneurs Seth Godin and Elon Musk prove otherwise
It’s instinctive to protect your territory and fight to keep your business going as it has. But what if what you’re doing is becoming obsolete? It’s key to know the difference between fighting for the status quo and fighting for your survival. They are two very distinct intentions.
In fact, you should expect your way of business to become obsolete. This may be the very best way to have the best long-term success. There are a few reasons why.
You put serving above execution
If you were an early enough adopter, then you remember when Netflix only did DVDs. I remember joining in the early ’00s, back when I was in Chicago and loved the idea of not having to trek to my nearby Blockbuster in the cold for movies.
As we now know, Netflix decided to scale down its DVD mailing arm and invest heavy in streaming movies. They obviously saw the future of technology, as download speeds at the time were too slow for consistent movie watching, but they also saw the future of us.
We wouldn’t care if it came on a broadband stream, on a DVD or on a laserdisc. What we cared about was easily watching a movie without having to leave our house. So, Netflix didn’t care.
Netflix realized it was a entertainment distribution company, not a DVD company.
You spend energy embracing the change rather than fighting it
In Seth Godin’s latest Akimbo podcast episode, he puts it straight out:
The platforms are going to keep changing. That’s what we’re in it for: The chance to surf it, the chance to create something new, because the very destruction that made it hard to figure out what’s next is what opened the door to let us figure out what’s going to happen next.
In other words, that cycle of turning things obsolete afforded you the opportunity to do the very thing you want to defend. You can be one fighting for a faster horse, or you can be the one getting ready for the motorized vehicle. Both approaches take the same amount of energy.
You commit to what is timeless
Ironically, recognizing that your approach won’t always be en vogue can help you create a timeless connection with your audience.
I talk about it in my book, Bring Your Worth:
It is wiser to trust the market cycles to do just that: cycle. Staying steadfast to your particular thing actually builds more security than hopping from trend to trend, as you build momentum, you build reputation, and you build community based on that very thing you care most about.
The thing you care most about isn’t based on how you do it. It is based on why you do it. For instance, Elon Musk’s recent Hypertruck unveiling was considered a disaster in both execution and maybe even market timing, yet his community embraced the folly because they respect his intention: To use technology to progress humanity.
Having a clear intention will never go out of style, even if the platform in which you do it changes.
