GET LUCKY » Change

The Anti-Luck: I Can Do it with my Eyes Closed

Amir Lehrer — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:06:21 +0000

If you’ve been following this blog, you will know that to get lucky, you must open yourself up to as many new opportunities as possible. Keeping your eyes open to see any changes that can lead to new opportunities and listening to as many people as possible to hear new points of view that can lead to new opportunity. It seems pretty obvious that if things aren’t going as well as you would have hoped, you would open yourself up to new ideas and new points of view. If that’s the case, why are so many businesses and organizations banging their heads into the same wall over and over again?

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

– Albert Einstein

Being new in town, my wife decided to help out some local organization by joining committees for their fundraisers. She was full of excitement knowing that she was not only going to be helping out her community but also, she will be able to share some of her ideas to make the events even more successful. They welcomed her onto the committees with open arms but to her surprise, they were unwilling to listen to any of her ideas. Even though they complained that they lost money of some events and would love to raise more money on others, they were determined to not only redo each of last year’s events but duplicate them completely and have the same people run each part.

My wife sent them an email saying that she was disappointed that she wasn’t involved more than just running errands that nobody else wanted to do. Here is the response that the committee leader sent to my wife:

Hi,

First of all, i apologize for not including you more in this. Most of the year to year things, carry on from year to year, so the ones who have dealt with these things in the past continue to do them year to year. Most of the committee does nothing more than helping to set up, dealing with the night of…I think because the core committee can do this with our eyes closed already, we didn’t bother to set up any “real meetings” with the rest of the committee.

“Who is wise: He who learns from all men.”

– Ethics of Our Fathers

When will people learn that if they want change, they will have to open their eyes and start doing things differently and most of all, listening to other ideas and points of view. If you never want to get lucky, go ahead and continue doing what you’ve always done with your eyes closed.Similar Posts:

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5 Ways to Change With the Times

Amir Lehrer — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:32:11 +0000

In my last post I wrote about people fighting change by signing a petition to get Facebook to drop their new interface and go back to what everyone is already “used to”. This article is going to describe the five basic types of consumers when it comes to adopting new products or change:

Innovators – This very small percentage of consumers see opportunities and jump on them. They look around to see what they can do that will start the change and they get it done. In 1941 the Bulova Watch Company showed the first ad ever on TV before a baseball game. This had never been done before and it had people talking all the way through the game and for months and probably even years afterward. They led the way for future advertising on TV.

Some modern examples are Facebook, Twitter and other interfaces that allow people to “Join the Conversation” as Joseph Jaffe would put it.

Early Adopters – This is a small group of people who want to jump on anything new that comes out. They love change and live for change. They always know about what is new and what will be coming out soon. They are on lists to try things out and participate in many beta launches of new products and services. It takes time to keep up with all of the change but they also reap the benefits. By adopting early on, they have a first crack at all the luck and opportunity that comes along with it. These are the companies that took advantage of advertising on TV once they saw that it has been done. They are not afraid to jump on the bandwagon.

Some modern examples are companies that are using “new” Social Media to communicate with their customers like Starbucks, Nike, Google and AOL.

Early Majority – This is the group that waits to see how things are working out for other people that have already adopted the change. They wait for the next version of the iPhone to come out before buying it. They want to see actual reviews of anything that they are going to jump into. They make what they think are educated decisions. This group still has a chance to pick up on some luck and opportunity that the change offers.

Late Majority – This is the group about the same size as the early majority that waits until the “majority” of people have made the change. They see the results and they wait a little more. These are the people who look at a stock go up for months to be certain that it is a good buy and then buy it only to watch it drop. These people miss out on a “majority” of the luck and opportunity that the change offers.

Laggards – The laggards are the people who hate change with a passion. They have a routine and have been doing something for so long that they don’t want to change. The only way that they change is when they are forced to. For example, people who had VHS players and refused to get a DVD player. Eventually they had no choice but to give in if they wanted to continue renting movies.

The laggards lose out on any potential luck or opportunity because everything is already used up. Just look at TV advertisers these days, nothing can compare to Bulova’s first commercial. Today, people forget about the commercial they watched several seconds ago.

As Richard Wiseman used in his example about luck, look at an apple orchard. The Orchard is full of apples, enough that you will be able to take all you can handle and not even make a dent. Along come the innovators and eat to their hearts delight. When the Early Adopters come along, there are a few apples missing but there is still enough for them to enjoy as much as they want. The Early Majority comes next and can also have as many apples as they want but they just have to look a little harder or climb up to higher branches to get them. The Late Majority doesn’t have much of a choice of apples but they can probably find a few if they look hard enough. Finally the laggards show up and find nothing but a whole bunch of apple cores scattered around.

I used to be a part of the “late majority” before I starting working on increasing my luck. I used to say that there was no point in changing so why bother. I liked to get by doing the absolute least possible. I would just float through life. Then I saw the luck and opportunity that change offered and I jumped into the early majority and even the early adopter for some things. I hope to join the innovators sometime soon.

How about you? What category do you fall into?

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People Hate the New Facebook Because They Hate Change

Amir Lehrer — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:39:07 +0000

This is part 1 of a 2 part series on change.

I got an invitation yesterday to join a group on Facebook called “Petition Against the “New Facebook”. I was not surprised in the least to get this invitation because:

a) People make groups on Facebook for everything.

and

b) People in general hate change.

I was amazed though that the group had well over 74,000 members when I last checked.

Besides this growing group on Facebook, I have heard many other complaints about the New Facebook and how they just want the old Facebook back. Most of the reasons are because they are “used to” the way it was.

Facebook needed the Facelift really badly and didn’t have much choice in the matter of creating the New look because:

People were going crazy with applications and you would have to scroll down forever to find anything on their pages.
When signing up for applications on Facebook, you have to agree to let the application developers have access to all of your personal information. Ideally they were only supposed to use what was needed for their application to work but in reality, they had access to anything you ever put in your private profile and they used the information to sell to advertisers. They made money off of you by selling your personal information. The new Facebook, limits that.
As people started using Facebook as more than just a game or fun way to stay in touch with friends, the interface had to change to adapt to that. Facebook is now used for all types of businesses, non profits, families, event planning, and many other useful activities. To accommodate the masses, they needed a new interface.
Facebook was originally created to for college students to stay in touch and was designed for that purpose. As Facebook changes, they want to give the users additional functionality and the best way to do that is to redesign the site so that it allows all the improvements to be added.

People need to accept change just to get by and, to get lucky, they need to pursue change. It is the people signing this petition that pretty much says “we hate change” who lose out on all the luck and opportunity that change has to offer. The “New” Facebook has new functionality that can help people out and make things easier for them but all they are saying is “we don’t want to change and we will fight it (until we have to accept it)”.

In my next post I am going to describe the 5 different types of people when it comes to change and the luck that each group has or doesn’t have.

What do you think of the “new” Facebook or changes like this in general?

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How flexible are you?

Amir Lehrer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:43:25 +0000

I recently read an article about Steven Jobs from Apple that joked about Steven having a plaque on his desk that read “my way or the highway”. The article gave Jobs a lot of credit and called him a genius but they mentioned that he has gotten himself into a little bit of trouble with his “do it my way” attitude. I don’t know the whole story and I wish I could remember where I read the article but it made me think of so many people who are not flexible and lose out because of it.

Over the years I have dealt with a lot of stubborn “my way or the highway” type of people who lose out because of their attitudes. They lose jobs, lose clients, lose friends and burn more bridges than they can count. Any yet, they never notice that maybe the problem is not with everyone else in the world. Maybe if these people were just a little more flexible, things would be easier for them and just might work out in their favor every once in a while.

Flexibility does not only help you out when dealing with other people but can actually help you in more ways than you can imagine. When booking a flight online, if you put in exact dates, you might not always be happy with the price that comes up but if you are a little flexible, the price gets a little more reasonable. The more flexible you are, the better the rates will be. If you want proof, try searching for a round trip flight between any 2 specific locations to leave on Friday and come back on Sunday. Then, if there is an option for “flexible”, click on it. Otherwise, do it manually. Add in surrounding airports so there are more choices, for example, in New York, instead of just JFK, add in La Guardia and Newark airports. Then change your dates to Tuesday, coming back on the next Wednesday. You’ll see the difference. This is just a little example of what being flexible can do.

If you are looking to buy a car and you are hoping for a one year old Mercedes with under 1000 miles, you will get a lot more results if you search for a slightly used luxury car. You may not get the exact car you were looking for but you will have a lot more to choose from and will probably end up with something just as good.

It’s always good to narrow things down so that you have a direction to move in and you can plan accordingly but it is just as important to be able to roll with the punches. Not everything in life is simple and works as planned. To get lucky, you need to be able to react to situations, be open minded and flexible enough to readjust every step of the way. Listen to co-workers, they may have something really interesting and helpful to say. After all, the more options and opinions you have, the more flexible you can be and the luckier you can get.

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You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Amir Lehrer — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:56:07 +0000

I have come to the realization that there comes a point in everybody’s life that they say “I am happy with where I am” and they just stop moving forward. The last two articles I wrote were about keeping up with change, this article is about continuing to change.

A little while ago I was speaking with a relative of mine who is in his eighties. This relative has never used the internet, he has a credit card but has never used it himself and is still stuck doing things the way he did them when he was younger. When I ask him if he wants to try something new such as learn to use the internet, his answer is that he has lived his life so far without it and he doesn’t need it. Sometimes he says “I’m too old to learn new things”. This man is retired and happy so I don’t push too hard to get him to do things he doesn’t want to do.

Everyone has their “stopping point” in life. A simple example is when it comes to school, some people stop after high school, some after college, some after a Masters degree and some people after a PHD or further. At a certain point each person says, “ok, I’ve had enough” and they are done with their schooling (except for the few people who are in school for life). On another level, you can apply this to anything. Everybody has their “stopping point” when it comes to information, technology, history and even religion. These are all categories that are never ending and no one will every know everything.

People see that these things are never ending so at a certain point they decide to stop or slow down. They get comfortable with the level that they have achieved and decide that they will live the rest of their life at that level. Some people reach a certain financial position and decide never to work again by retiring. There are certain things that it is ok for a person to decide that they have enough and stop but there are many other things that will prevent them from getting lucky.

If a person has enough money to do whatever he wants for the rest of his life, it is ok to stop and retire. If a person is running a business and decides that he has had enough with changing technology, and he decides to stop, he will be missing out on some vital luckortunity and could potentially lose his business.

In Life, it is okay to stop at a certain point but when you do stop, you must make an educated decision and make sure that if you want to get lucky, it will not decrease your luckortunity.

All of these categories in life are like climbing an escalator the wrong way. You can climb as much as you want but if you stop, you will start going backwards. This is especially true with technology. You can be at the top of your field but if you stop adapting to the changes in technology, it won’t be long before you drop.

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Get Lucky By Keeping Up With Change Part II

Amir Lehrer — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:20:34 +0000

Yesterday I wrote an article about keeping up with change and not relying on what your father did before you or his father before that. I feel very strongly so I am going to write another post or two on the subject.

In the last article I wrote about how people mismanage their businesses by running them the same way as they did years before. The problem gets even worse. These same companies hire bright young people out of college who have been trained to work in today’s market and then try and teach them their old systems. For the new employees to get along, they have to unlearn what they already know and then learn outdated systems that the company uses. This takes the company’s advantage of the new hires and turns it into an even bigger disadvantage. The company loses out and in the long run, the new employees lose out because they are not getting any modern experience that they can use in a new job down the line.

I belong to a community center that has been run by one woman who was the administrator for close to 30 years. She just retired and the community center now has a new administrator who is a little more advanced in technology but for years, the place was run like an organization out of the mid 1900’s. Every bill, invoice, membership letter, newsletter were sent out individually, and typed up on a type writer. Membership dues requests were sent out in alphabetical order. People with a last name starting with a “Z” might not get their bill until 15 months later.

In addition to how slow the office work got done, they did not have a website and did not accept electronic payments. Checks would have to be dropped off during office hours. This alone cost the community centers thousands of dollars since it was so hard for anyone to pay the bills that they did receive.

I am not writing this article to complain about the community center that I belong to but rather to express that there are hundreds or even thousands of organizations and businesses out there that are losing out because they didn’t keep up with the times.

Some people might think that it costs money to keep up with technology but I am saying it costs more not to keep up. Think about the costs for the above community center:

Buy a computer $500

Buy Quickbooks $130

Accept credit card payments $100

Total $730

If they invest $730 in a new system, they could be making thousands of dollars from bills that people will pay online. They will also make money in interest by getting payments on time. I think that it would pay itself off fairly quickly.

Once again, this is just an example of how companies and organizations are falling behind the times and losing out. Time is the most valuable asset in the world. It only makes sense to do everything that you can to save time.

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Get Lucky By Keeping Up With Change

Amir Lehrer — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:45:24 +0000

Have you ever heard someone say something to the effect of “it’s worked for me this long, it will continue to work” or “my father did this, my grandfather did this, his father did this and so on”? In life there are many things that if you want to accomplish, you just have to find someone successful and follow whatever they did. There are also many things in life that worked at one point in time but no longer work or at least not as well.

An example of the first is if you want to be successful in something such as real estate, you can find someone who is already successful and follow exactly what he did. If you do this, you have a good chance of being successful as well. An example of the second is someone who runs a business like it ran 50 years ago when his father or grandfather opened it. Today, everything needs to be computerized to stay organized and quick so that you can compete in the tough business world. 50 years ago, everything was hand written and filed. If you continue that today, you will not be able to keep up with your competition. You also may need to get a web presence so that you can compete with the global market instead of just the immediate area where your business is located.

Imagine a family who had a farm and made their living from that farm for 10 generations. For the last 10 generations, it might have worked really well and their family would have been very well off but now that we are in the information age, farming and many other fields do not do so well anymore. The owner of the farm might need to sell the farm and find something else to do. Unfortunately many people have the attitude that they have been doing it for so long that they don’t have to change. These are the unlucky people who are left behind.

In today’s day in age, to be lucky and successful, we must keep up with new technology, fads, trends, products and services. If we don’t know everything that is available, it is likely that we will miss out on great luckortunity. Successful and lucky people read and learn as much as they possibly can on their subject from books to magazines to going to regular conferences and trade shows. In the Information age, things change really quickly and if you are not on board, you are losing out.

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