Disruption is everywhere. It’s not confined to Amazon and Netflix. Every industry and every business is experiencing it. If you haven’t felt it yet, you will. Sometimes you don’t recognize the disruption until it’s already happened to you.
This lack of awareness is what I call “Narrow Visioning”.
“Narrow Visioning” takes two forms. The first is more obvious. It happens when new technology and processes fundamentally alter your industry to the point where your business becomes obsolete – when the retail store has to close because Amazon was faster and cheaper or when streaming video puts your local video rental shop out of business.
The other form of “Narrow Visioning” happens when an entrepreneur doesn’t recognize new opportunities that open up. The usual way this happens is when an entrepreneur becomes successful and too comfortable. There are no serious threats. Things are working. So, why make a change?
Why make a change?? The answer is that the world is constantly in a state of change. Don’t abandon what works, but please be alert. Change is happening around you. You should constantly be looking for new opportunities: new markets, new products, new services, new ways of attacking your market, whole new businesses. If you’re successful and only want to keep doing what you’re doing because it’s safe, you have blinders on. You’re not seeing the world as it is. Opportunities are slipping by for someone else to seize. Your vision is narrow and so are your prospects.
The solution to “Narrow Visioning” is simple common sense – take a fresh look. That can be hard to do from the inside, especially if you’ve been doing the same thing over and over for years. It can require a new set of eyes from a new mind taught from different experiences. In the churn of change there is no shortage of ideas out there – some that work and some that don’t. And they can all teach you something. Many ideas that you discover can be applied in a practical common sense way to your circumstance. Don’t overlook them.
Common habit is the enemy of common sense, just as Narrow Visioning is the enemy of success.