“[B]y the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.” – Bill Gates

Realizing that you are replaceable is hard for individuals and organizations to come to terms with. Yet, the reality is that 99.9% of the time we are completely interchangeable. Accepting this is the first step to increasing your odds of success.

When businesses (industries) fail it’s because they ignored the fact they were replaceable. Newspapers are being decimated by the internet. The local bookstore is being replaced by Chapters. And, Chapters (and the local bookstore) is making way for Amazon.

Innovation means change, and people fear change. But, the fastest way to ensure your demise is to try to ignore innovation. Bill Gates once said, “People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear.”

I heard a marketing colleague say to me the other day, “Isn’t Twitter over yet. I was hoping it would go away.”…

Post Script:

I love this comment from Kari, “Hmmm. Keep replacing yesterday-you with tomorrow-you. And keep making tomorrow-you smarter, more experienced, more connected, less mired. Tomorrow-you should make yesterday-you look stupid, which is a hard thing to do. Most of us don’t like looking stupid, even if it’s in-the-past-us. Twitter isn’t going away, thankfully.”