To succeed in this world, you have to change all the time. – Sam Walton
Constant change is a vital part of the Wal-Mart culture itself. I’ve forced change – sometimes for change’s sake alone – at every turn in our company’s development. In fact, I think one of the greatest strengths of Wal-mart’s ingrained culture is its ability to drop everything and turn on a dime. – Sam Walton
As I have continued on in my life, it seems to me that the only constant IS change. I like feeling secure, and thinking I have things under control. But that is really just an illusion.
If there is no change, there is no life!
We should get used to change.
I just re-read a great book by artist Danny Gregory, called The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are
“Birds Sing, wolves howl, crickets chirp. But why? Money? Fame? Record Contracts? Endorsements? What’s it all for? THEY DO IT BECAUSE THEY ARE ALIVE! They do it because life is about making things. Making babies, nests, new cells, dinner, dandruff, excrement…our bodies are always turning one thing into another.”
I believe that if things aren’t in motion, and change isn’t happening, we’re dying.
I’ve never been a big fan of “we’ve always done it this way”. I even had buttons that had that particular phrase on them with a big red circle and slash thru it. (I wore one when I was programming a radio station in Savannah, Georgia. It seemed to be everyone’s favorite phrase when I got to town. The station was near the bottom of the pack. HMM. Go figure.)
At Walmart, Sam Walton would go into competing retail stores and come back to his company with a yellow pad of new ideas that he had “borrowed” to implement for HIS company — To make them better, more competitive.
Perhaps change for “change sake” isn’t the best deal. But if you are changing to stay competitive and better yourself, we should be all for it. Not resistant to it.
How do you deal with change when it happens?
Quotes are from Sam Walton: Made In America
