How Getting Out of Our Comfort Zone Virtually Assures Us of Business Success

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By Charles Alvarez , Contributor, the Price of Business Show. * Sponsored

The comfort zone gives us a false sense of security that what we are doing is correct. The fact of the matter is that staying in our comfort zone does not allow us to reach the next level of success in your business. It’s like my college business professor said in college “change or die.”

In the early 20th century, one of the largest industries in the United States was a buggy whip. As some of you may remember from history, people got around on horse or horse and buggy. Naturally, one of the essentials of human transportation in the early 1900s was a buggy whip that we used to steer the horses.

As was customer, each year they would hold a buggy whip convention to discuss industry news and what is new in buggy whips (I cannot image there being much new each year, but let’s just go with it). One year, a young man was invited to be a guest speaker at the buggy whip convention. This man came with a message that made the attendees of this convention very uncomfortable.

This man had a different vision for how mankind got around other than horses, carriages, and buggies. He had a vision where there would be paved road across America that connects cities and states together in an organized manner. This young man also discussed how man would get around in a more reliable and more powerful transportation instrument that would be ran on a combustible engine that carries the power of 20 horses combined.

This man got laughed out of the room by the attendees and was asked to never come back. Each participant thought it was ludicrous that man would ever stop uses a horse as the primary means of transportation. Well, it was not shortly after that event that HENRY FORD had the last laugh while the attendees at the buggy whip convention were scrambling for a new line of work.

This story illustrates what happens when we get comfortable with the same ole same ole. The best companies in the world never see the finished product or service as “done.” They are always innovating and pushing the envelope on how to deliver a better value to their customers.

So, what are you comfortable with and what are you going to do about it?

Sponsored by the Price of Business, on Bloomberg’s home in Houston, TX