More of the same

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

More of the same
By Douglas E. Welch

Listen to this Podcast

[audio:http://welchwrite.com/career/audio/2010/career-op-20100219.mp3]

Even in this world of constant new ideas, too many people fall back on the same old, same old. It’s no surprise, really. The same is always easier, more popular, more profitable, more salable to partners. Of course, that is all fine and dandy, but it can also be colossally boring. It can be the digital equivalent of churning out widgets or typing up memos, day after day. It can be stagnating to both you and and the people you work for. Even worse, while a company can cash out when “the same old same old” is no longer profitable, you will have been stagnating in one place and actually reducing your career options along the way.

With people like myself, and maybe you too, this dichotomy can cause big problems. While your new ideas might be what attract people to you, in most cases, it is “the same” that people really want. They want your reliability — your ability to produce on time, on budget and on target — but they don’t want you to do anything new. They just want “the same”. They don’t want new. New causes problems. New is insecure. New might lose them money. New is just too darned risky — and too much trouble. So we all fall back into “the same” again and again. Change is frightening.They don’t want new ideas that cost money to implement. They don’t want a new business model that is untried. Eventually, of course, after much back and forth, they won’t want you either. You simply become too much trouble.

I know it might sound all doom and gloom, but there is a bright side to all of this. There are a few people out there who really do want something new. They want to try crazy things. They want to say audacious things. They want to push the limits even it means a little less money and a little less of “the same.” If you are someone who craves the new, these are where your focus must turn. You must find these other like minded people instead of wasting your time moving from one job to another.

Where do you find these people? Well, if you are truly interested in the new, they are probably all around you. They are your fellow patrons at that funky new pub — the folks engaged in that new extreme sport — the people you follow on Twitter. Think about it. Who are you connecting with online and offline? Who engages your attention when you are reading blogs or Google Buzz. These are people you need to be working with. These are the projects where you need to be working. This is where your energy should be flowing, not into “the same”.

You already have everything you need to do great things. You have the intelligence, you have the connections, you have the drive and you have energy to constantly seek out “the new” and those who love it as much as you do. Don’t waste your time with “the same” or you risk spending the rest of your life there.

---

---

Revised Post