Mar 04 2014

The 6 most dangerous words in any business. I read Seth Godin’s Blog today (I’m on his mailing list so I read most of them). The theme of it today was being open & able to accept that you were wrong, that things are not what they seemed, that you need to change your mind.

I’m sure you’ve probably heard the title phrase, you may even have said it, I’m sure I have at some point in my career. Being stuck in that mindset is as dangerous as believing that the internet is not going to work, that it is a fad. When life shows us new facts, new information we need to be in a position to accept it. Maybe not accept it outright, maybe we should challenge it, to confirm it’s validity, but we need to be willing to accept it after a period of confirmation.

Darwin is often cited or quoted as coining the phrase “survival of the fittest”, it was actually first written by Herbert Spencer in 1864 after reading Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. It was until 1869 in his 5th edition that Darwin included the phrase.

Darwin is also cited or quoted as saying “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Again, not from Darwin, but from a guy called Megginson, in 1963 and not exactly as shown here – the image & text here were paraphrased. I tried to find an image citing Megginson, but of course there isn’t one, there are many citing Darwin???

The point, that’s what we’ve always believed, that’s what we’ve always done. When we check our facts, or confirm our beliefs we often find that we need to change our mind. How open are you to change? How willing are you to accept that a long held belief, custom, practice or other behaviour is in need of modification or change? Are you adaptable? Or do you stick with what has always been done, believed, taught, etc…