Don’t Laugh at What You Don’t Understand

I miss going to Blockbuster. It was a family outing. You walked the aisles, argued about what to get, and somebody wanted candy at the register. When I hear the story about Netflix going to Blockbuster with an offer, I don’t hear a reason to call those people stupid. I want to understand what they were looking at, what was paying their bills, and why the new thing was so hard for them to take seriously.

That is where this episode of The Observation Room begins. Don’t laugh at what you don’t understand. I’m interested in what happens before we decide an idea won’t work, especially when we are successful enough at something that we think we already know the answer.

One of the things I keep noticing is how much the description we give ourselves can limit what we look at. A company says it is in one business, and an opportunity outside that business becomes somebody else’s problem. A person says, “I’m in sales” or “I’m not a numbers person,” and starts treating that description as the edge of what they can do.

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I spent a lot of years in mortgages. Becoming a beginner in another industry didn’t erase that experience. It meant finding out where it helped and where I needed to learn something new. You can have useful experience and still need to ask questions. I’m still finding out.

The stories in this episode do not all end the same way. Some companies changed and did well. Some held on and did well. Others had a good idea and handled the change badly. That is why I don’t want to turn this into an instruction to walk away from everything familiar. I want to understand what is actually happening before deciding what to keep or change.

There is a practical place to start. Take one possibility you dismissed and look at the reason. If money, time, or training is the limit, name it. If you don’t yet know whether anybody needs what you are offering, find a small way to check. You can still decide against it afterward. At least you will understand what you are saying no to.

Come into the community and tell me about something you reconsidered once you understood it better. I would also like to hear about a small change you made instead of continuing to complain about a problem.

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Michelle