#086 - The Candle Society

Do you know that when they were trying to put the light bulb into production, THE CANDLE SOCIETY, yes apparently there was such a thing, The Candle Society protested against the light bulb because it was dangerous.

 

And FORD, Ford was actually protested against when they tried producing the car - and the reason for the protest - can your guess - I'll give you a moment - but it will make you laugh - the reason for the protest - "the car can't go through the woods, but my horse can". So they tried banning the whole thing.

 

As humans, we tend to like to consume things that are new, but we are not that good at adopting them. Just like the Technology Life Cycle Curve that I spoke about in the last episode. We like buying that new car, but then the following year when there is a facelift, most people don't like the facelift and it takes time to grow on them because as human beings we are actually not that good at change so we keep things down.

 

Remember how I spoke about the technology chasm? I'd like to propose a potentially simpler explanation. I'd like to propose that those us who use technology to improve our business, are "pre-chasm" people. Remember, this is made up of only 16% of the human population, 2.5" are the INNOVATORS, while 13.5% are the EARLY ADOPTERS. I'd like to propose that for this percentage of the population, change comes easily.

 

And that my friends is what makes technology difficult.

 

Technology alone is EASY.

 

CHANGE is hard.

 

And as we just discusses, 85% of the population does not like change.

 

So, if you are going to use technology to improve your business, or, you would simply like to improve your business in any way, you must begin to become familiar and comfortable with change. Change is the answer. How you run your business today, may not be how you need to run your business next week, next month, or next year.

 

Be Open. and be Open to Change. Be a light bulb, not a candle.