There are Two Kinds of People in the World -Part 1

Change is neither good nor bad. It is only certain.

George Carlin may have had it right when he said, “No one knows what’s next, but everybody does it,” but how we “do it” differs radically.

There are the pessimists, those that see change as an evil encroachment on their tried and true ways. They are reactive, only complying at the very last minute when they have no other choice, which, of course, is usually the least effective time to do so.

This includes entire industries like the railroads. As Jason Jennings pointed out in his book Less Is More, “if the railroad companies had recognized they weren’t in the railroad business but in the business of transporting people and goods, the airlines today would have names like Union Pacific and Santa Fe.” Instead, they marginalized themselves by ignoring change.

This lack of embracing change also applies to individuals like myself, who on multiple occasions stayed in jobs literally to the very end knowing full well that technology had passed my employers by. Yet, when the doors closed I still had the audacity to exclaim, “whoa is me, poor me,” knowing all the while that deep-down I had seen it coming, ignored proactive action, and was, therefore, responsible for my own predicament.

Then there are the optimists, those that recognize the opportunities that change presents. They are the proactive, the ones that believe they can benefit by paying attention and jumping on the wave.

This list includes obvious big-time innovators like Bill Gates, who purchased a poorly engineered computer operating system for around fifty-thousand dollars and turned it into a multi-multi billion dollar computer software mega-giant. He didn’t even develop the software himself. His innovation was recognizing it’s importance and distributing it to the world.

Those who proactively react to change also include ordinary people like your neighbor who gave up her dead-end office job. Recognizing that coffee was more than a fifty cent morning beverage, she turned it into a livelihood, creating a local social gathering spot where people meet all day long to sip variations of the roasted bean juice and play on their computers. And although many may have recognized it, she took that extra step and risked implementing it.

Change happens. As Seth Godin points out in his new book Linchpin, “This is either a huge opportunity or a giant threat. Revolutions are frightening because the new benefits sometimes lag behind the old pain.” The key then is in ignoring the fear and recognizing the opportunity.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those that reactively and begrudgingly comply to change only when they have to and those that proactively use change to their advantage. Pessimists see change as painful; optimists see change as beneficial. Recognizing this, we can avoid becoming the former and learn from the latter.