Change is difficult. A justification that explains the headlong race into business irrelevancy perpetuated by companies clinging to the status quo.
"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts," said Edward R. Murrow. A man willing to take on the status quo, and create a new reality based on simple truths.
And the truth is simple. And much as we or others try to dress it, pervert it and twist it to our own needs, it is both resilient and reliable. Waiting patiently for us to come home, rewarding us with the joy that we are back, and reminding us again of the pleasure of belonging to something on which we can count.
For those whose life is devoted to selling creativity, our truth is that creativity possesses the power to change attitudes and behaviors.
The value of which we deny when we charge only for the time it takes us to create. A perspective which also explains why we are unwilling to rock our own status quo.
For if we see change only as a by-product of what we do and not as the benefit of what we do, we focus only on the act of change. Not the outcome. Rewarding ourselves not for moving closer to our goals, but for simply surviving another day. A business plan that ends inevitably and ironically in change. Uncontrollable. Unavoidable. Unbearable.
But change is not a by-product or an after-thought.
Change is the result of the work we do.
And the better we do it, the more change we produce.
A perspective that we need to harness if we are to define our futures on our own terms.
Which brings us to Step 1 in:
The Guide To Valuable Creative Business.
I. Defining Change.
Email yourself the answers to these questions:
1. If I bought our largest client, what would my three biggest problems be?
2. Would I hire us to solve any of them?
3. What change would I expect to be caused by hiring us?
“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” Confucius said.
On Thursday, we’ll take step 2.
