“I’ve got twenty-five people like you waiting at the door”
You’ve probably had a boss or client (the kind who talks in buzzwords and is very pleased with themselves) say something like that to you. We live in a wonderful world with the bad habit of judging people far too lightly, and that leads to mistakes that can change the course of a business. Of course, that also applies to the business world and the decisions made in it.
If you find it hard to believe that Americans elected Trump as president, you’ll be surprised to learn that a certain Walt Disney was fired from a production company for supposedly not being creative. Something similar happened to Harry Potter’s mother, J.K. Rowling, who was rejected by more than thirty publishers. So, point one: don’t trust people – most of the time they have no idea how good you can be.
It goes so far that even Michael Jordan, the best basketball player of all time, was told to go and sell hot dogs because he wasn’t tall enough to score baskets. And that came from professional coaches, scouts and managers, not from his brother-in-law.
Companies that crashed because they couldn’t evolve
But if individual cases have been striking, the huge mistakes made by companies that once ruled Middle-earth the world because they didn’t know how to pivot are not far behind.
Take a classic: Kodak. For decades they were the masters of photography; their logo appeared at every sporting event, concert and big billboard, but technology wiped them off the map. Why? They refused to adapt to the digital world, believing it wasn’t the right time. We all know how that ended.
Another great empire that faded away was Nokia. Who didn’t spend hours playing the fabulous snake game in the early 2000s? However, they took the wrong path: while some people with a bitten apple were starting to take over the smartphone market, the Finns followed in BlackBerry’s footsteps… and both were forgotten together.
“Haleth, son of Háma, there is always hope”
This iconic line from The Two Towers also applies to entrepreneurship. Despite these examples, the good news is that there’s always light at the end of the road. Very often, mistakes help us learn, as Edison said, the ways not to do things.
One example is Starbucks, which at one point made the mistake of feeling invincible and expanding into areas it didn’t master (film production, music, etc.). The parent company’s resources dwindled to the point where it neglected the quality of service that had made it successful, and even had to close almost a thousand stores. But it stepped back, reflected and focused on what it did best: food and drink.
And finally, one that will surely surprise you. Did you know that Netflix started out renting DVDs through its website? While giants like Blockbuster sank when the digital world arrived, Netflix changed its business model – and today we all know where it is.
So there you have it: believe in yourself, own your mistakes and be ready to correct them a thousand times over. Winning this long-distance race is up to you. Oh, and if you need a place to get started, you know where we are: we’ll be delighted to welcome you at Llum.
