If you grew up anytime between 1950 and 1990, you probably remember Polaroid cameras. In today’s era of digital photography, it may be hard for some people to understand what a big deal instant photographs were, but in their time they were revolutionary. To give you some perspective, in the early days of photographic history during the 1800s, only people with expensive cameras, darkrooms, a host of chemicals, and specific technical skills could produce photographs.
Then in 1888, Kodak developed innovations in cameras and film that put photography in nearly everyone’s reach. “You press the button, we do the rest” was their slogan. The good news was anybody could be a photographer; the bad news was that he had to mail off his camera with the exposed film to a plant to be processed, and then wait days or weeks to receive his photographs. Even well into the twentieth century, when film was created that anyone could load and remove from a camera himself, seeing the photographs you shot was an exercise in patience.
Edwin Land changed all that. Land, the son of a scrap-metal dealer, was born in 1909. As a boy, he became fascinated with the physics of light after reading Robert W. Wood’s Physical Optics, one of the few books in his house. He was accepted at Harvard and attended there briefly, but dropped out to do experiments in a homemade lab he created in his New York City apartment.
Land was awarded his first patent in 1929 after he developed a process for polarization that could be used commercially. That early work eventually led to glare-reducing sunglasses, pilots’ goggles for the military, filtering systems for photography, and the first 3-D movie system. Land started his company in 1937, with the help of an investor. In 1940, it was named the Polaroid Corporation. During World War II, the company made a fortune. But Land was best known for what has been called his ability to “invent on demand.” An Air Force general once called Land asking advice for a problem with gun sights. One of Land’s colleagues recounted, “Land’s reply was that he would fly down to Washington the next day to describe the solution. The general said, ‘Oh, so you have a solution?’ And Land responded, ‘No, but I’ll have one by then.’ And he did.”1
That ability to innovate is said to have given birth to the idea of instant photography. One day in 1943 while on vacation, Land was taking pictures of his daughter, and she asked him, “Why can’t I see the picture now?”2 With Land’s genius for problem solving and invention, the mental gears started turning. He started figuring out how to create a camera and film that could produce a paper photograph on the spot. Christopher Bonanos, author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, writes, “Everything he’d learned in his previous work—about filters, about making tiny crystals and thin films, about optics, even about manufacturing and outsourcing—came into play.”3 Land later said that he was able to rough out the details of the system in a few hours, “except,” he said, “for the ones that took from 1943 to 1972 to solve.”4
The Land camera by Polaroid was first sold to the public in November 1948. It produced a sepia-toned photograph in about sixty seconds. At the time, it was an astounding technological innovation. The questions was, would anyone buy it? Land’s colleagues believed he was too optimistic when he hoped to sell 50,000 cameras per year. But Land was right. People loved it. At its debut, their entire stock of cameras sold out within hours. By 1953, Polaroid had sold 900,000 units.5
During the next two decades, Polaroid continued to change and innovate. They retired the sepia film and developed a fine black-and-white, which they said was the toughest single task the company ever faced. They recruited legendary photographer Ansel Adams as a consultant and camera user. Whenever they faced technical problems, such as photographs that faded, they solved it. And they developed a way to create instant photographs in color. They learned from their mistakes and kept getting better.
Polaroid was founded on change. They spent extraordinary amounts of money on research and development, creating new products and processes. And their early cameras displayed elegant designs, often the work of industrial artists. They kept innovating. In the 1970s, photographers were shooting a billion Polaroid photographs each year.6
In the mid-1970s, Polaroid fought against Kodak, who introduced an instant camera that Land believed infringed on Polaroid’s patents. The battle lasted over fourteen years and wasn’t settled until 1990. But by that time, Land had retired (in 1980). And Polaroid was in deep trouble. People were no longer buying their products. Bonanos writes:
Ask Polaroid people where things started to go wrong—was it at some point in the 1980s? earlier? later?—and everyone has a different answer. One blames inflexible engineers, another financial missteps…. What’s clear, though, is that the decline began almost imperceptibly. In 1978, Polaroid had more than 20,000 employees…. By 1991… 5,000…. A decade later, even having received that immense windfall [nearly $1 billion from the Kodak settlement], Polaroid was bankrupt.7
In fact, between 2001 and 2009 Polaroid declared bankruptcy twice and was sold three times.
What happened? The company that had been founded on innovation and thrived on change stopped paying the price of learning. Where its best thinkers had spent their time creating innovative solutions to problems and introducing revolutionary products that the public didn’t know it wanted—but loved—the new emphasis was on rehashing old products with minor cosmetic updates. The company under Edwin Land had put its best resources into research and development while outsourcing manufacturing, but it then shifted its focus to manufacturing and cutting costs. The days of innovation and change were over—and at a time when photography was experiencing its most rapid change.
Ironically, Polaroid had a shot at introducing an early digital camera. The idea was that the leader in instant photography would become the leader in instant imaging, but they abandoned the project because it didn’t include their regular revenue stream of film sales.8 They also were in a position to pioneer inkjet technology. But when upper management decided that the quality of the technology “would never be photographic,” they killed the project.
Had Land still been leading the company, he probably would have continued to fight for a solution, paying the price to invent a way to make the quality high enough. That’s what he had always done in the past. Instead, under new leadership, Polaroid slowly faded away to nothing. That’s what happens when people won’t pay the price of learning by being willing to change.
Change is not embraced by most people. I used to think leaders loved change and everyone else didn’t. Now after decades of teaching and investing in leaders, I have come to realize that leaders resist change as much as followers do—unless the change is their idea! The truth is that just about everybody resists change. Why? Because…
Pioneering radio host George V. Denny Jr. once told the story of a New York City newspaper reporter who was sent to Maine to interview an old man who was nearing his hundredth birthday. The reporter approached the gentleman politely and said, “Sir, you must have see a great many changes during your hundred years.”
The old man looked at the reporter intently. “Yes,” he replied, “and I’ve been against all of ’em!”
Novelist Andre Gide observed, “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” That loss can be very frightening, and it can sometimes feel like a personal loss. It makes you wonder if the elderly man from Maine felt like the changes he continually experienced were a personal affront! But the truth of the matter is that though change feels personal, it isn’t. The world keeps changing and it affects everyone, whether they like it or not.
Poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson had an insightful take on this. He asserted, “For every thing we gain we lose something.” We like gaining, but we don’t like losing. We want to have the one without the other. But life doesn’t work that way. Every beginning ends something. Every ending begins something new. We are continually making trades in life. Unfortunately, if you resist change, you are trading your potential to grow for your comfort. No change means no growth.
Change always feels different. Because it’s unfamiliar, it often doesn’t feel right. Let me give you an example. Take a moment right now and clasp your hands together with your fingers interlaced. That probably feels very comfortable. Why? Because you naturally place your hands a certain way, with one thumb over the other. Now clasp your hands the opposite way by trading the position of your thumbs and moving your fingers over just one finger. How does that feel? It’s probably uncomfortable. You never clasp your hands that way.
Is it wrong to clasp your hands this other way? No. Is it an inferior way of clasping hands? No. It’s just different. And different feels awkward. But you can get used to it. Don’t believe me? Every day for the next two weeks, clasp your hands the opposite way from what you’re used to. By the end of that time, it will feel almost as comfortable as your natural way.
I experienced this awkwardness as a golfer because I taught myself how to play. Since I’d had no instruction, I was worried that I had developed a lot of bad habits. When I did finally talk to a professional golfer to get some lessons, he said, “You’ve got only one problem.” I was relieved for a moment. Then he told me what it was: “You’re too close to the golf ball after you hit it!”
Becoming better meant I would have to change everything: my grip, my stance, my posture, my swing. Every bit of it felt awkward. And what was really demoralizing was that I didn’t see immediate improvement. There were times when under pressure I would resort to my old swing. I knew it was wrong, but it brought me security. I wanted the bad that I knew instead of the good I hadn’t mastered. I had to overcome that awkwardness to improve my game, and after years of struggle I finally did.
When I received my first leadership position in an organization, I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase “We’ve never done it that way before.” It seemed like every time I wanted to make an improvement, I heard someone extol the virtues of resisting change. I can’t tell you how frustrating that was, especially when the person who said it couldn’t tell me why it had always been done the way it had been done.
A Duke of Cambridge was quoted as saying, “Any change at any time is to be deplored.” Why would he profess something like that? Probably because he valued tradition. And there’s nothing wrong with tradition, as long as a person doesn’t become a slave to it. The person who insists on using yesterday’s methods in today’s world won’t be in business tomorrow.
Some people believe that nothing should ever be done until everyone is convinced that it ought to be done. The problem with that is it takes so long to convince them that by the time they finally agree to the change, it’s time to move on to something else. No wonder some people believe that progress means moving backward slowly. They bring life to the old riddle: How many traditionalists does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Four. One to put in the new bulb and three tell you how wonderful the old bulb was.
Because people don’t like change, most of them don’t react to it very well. And their response creates more problems for them. Here’s what I mean:
For many years I’ve counseled and mentored people, and I have come to the conclusion that many people are like Lucy in the comic strip Peanuts. In one installment, Lucy says, “Boy, do I feel crabby.”
Her younger brother Linus responds, “Maybe I can be of help. Why don’t you just take my place here in front of the TV while I go and fix you a nice snack? Sometimes we all need a little pampering to help us feel better.”
Linus returns with a sandwich, chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of milk. He says, “Now, is there anything else I can get you? Is there anything I haven’t thought of?”
“Yes, there’s one thing you haven’t thought of,” Lucy replies, taking the tray. “I don’t wanna feel better!”
Most people would rather change their circumstances to improve their lives when instead they need to change themselves to improve their circumstances. They put in just enough effort to distance themselves from their problems without ever trying to go after the root, which can often be found in themselves. Because they don’t try to change the source of their problems, their problems keep coming back at them.
Positive change and a willingness to learn are personal responsibilities. I agree with my friend Julio Melara, who says: “If your career, marriage, job, and life are to improve, you must change. In the mirror you are looking at the problem and the solution. It begins with you making a decision. The people who reach their potential no matter what their background or profession think in terms of improvement.” If you want to get better, you need to be willing to change.
A letter was returned to the Post Office. Marked on the envelope were the words, “He’s dead.” Through an oversight the letter was again sent to the same address. It was again returned, with the following note: “He’s still dead.” Too often we are like the postal worker, resending that letter yet hoping for different results.
Whenever we try something and it fails, why do we keep trying the exact same thing expecting to get different results? It doesn’t make sense. What do we expect to change? Our luck? The laws of physics? How can our lives get better if we don’t change? How can we become better if we don’t expose ourselves to growing situations and people?
Our lives are like a trip we plan to a distant city. We set a destination, map out our route, and start driving. But we should know there will be detours and obstacles ahead. Do we ignore those and pretend they don’t exist? How successful will we be if we think, The obstacles and conditions need to adjust to me because I’m not changing? Not very. We need to be willing to make adjustments.
Many of life’s greatest discoveries are found when we’re willing to go off the main road, by trying things we’ve never tried before. Brian Tracy in his audiobook The Psychology of Achievement tells the story of four men who became highly successful by age thirty-five. On average, each was involved in seventeen ventures before finding the business that made it. If they had started the first business and said, “I’m not quitting this business no matter what,” they would have gotten stuck. Tenacity is a fantastic quality. But tenacity without a willingness to change and make necessary adjustments becomes dogmatism and leads to dead ends.
Entrepreneur Alan Cohen said, “To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.” That mind-set shows a flexibility of mind and a willingness to change, which are the price of learning.
Let’s face the fact: change is messy. Management expert Peter Drucker observed, “As every executive has learned, nothing new is easy. It always gets into trouble.” That difficulty and sense of trouble holds a lot of people back from changing. But life is change. Being born was painful. Learning to eat was messy. Learning to walk was difficult and painful. In fact, most of the things you needed to learn in order to live were tough on you. But you didn’t know any better, and you did what you needed to do to learn and grow. Now that you’re an adult, you have a choice. Do you want to avoid the potential pain or endure it and pursue the opportunity?
Leadership expert Max De Pree uses the phrase “the gift of change.” What a great way to look at it. Unfortunately, most people don’t see change as a gift. But it is. Every time you embrace change, there is an opportunity for you to go in a positive direction, make improvements to yourself, abandon old negative habits and ways of thinking. Change allows you to examine your assumptions, rethink your strategies, and build your relationships. Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or improvement. If you are willing and able to initiate change, you will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable to everyone in life.
My dad often said to me when I was faced with a decision that required discipline, “John, pay now so you can play later.” That lesson was a constant theme in my life when I was growing up. Why? Because I always wanted to play! It was in my nature. But father kept telling me, “You can play now and pay later, or you can pay now and play later. But make no mistake: you will pay. And the longer you wait, the more you will pay, because delayed payment demands interest.”
Change always requires something of us. We must pay a price for it. In fact, ongoing change and improvement require continual payment. But the process begins with the first payment. That first payment starts the growth process. If that first price remains unpaid, there is no growth or learning. And what will that cost you in the end? You lose potential and gain regret.
As I grow older, I have come to realize that most of our regrets will not be a result of what we did. They will come because of what we could and should have done but didn’t do. The final price we pay is called missed opportunity, and that is a heavy cost.
In the end, because people are so resistant to it, change occurs only under certain conditions. In my experience, people change when:
Unless one of those things happens, people don’t change. Sometimes people require all three to happen before they are willing to change.
Several years ago, my publisher suggested that I start using social media to connect with people. I don’t have a technical bone in my body, so the idea simply did not resonate with me. But they were persistent, and eventually I started to talk about it with my team. But honestly, I still didn’t get it.
Then one night I was having dinner with my friend Norwood Davis, who has worked for my company as CFO, and I mentioned Twitter to him and how I couldn’t understand any use for it.
“Let me show you,” Norwood said as he pulled out his phone. As I ate my steak, Norwood tweeted that he was having dinner with me. In a matter of minutes, Norwood received dozens of replies and direct messages from people encouraging him or asking him to give me messages. And I finally understood. Twitter was a way to connect with people and communicate with them almost instantaneously.
I had finally learned enough that I wanted to change. But because I’m not technical, I still needed to receive enough to be able to change. I got that with the help of Stephanie Wetzel. She created my Twitter account, got me on Facebook, and launched my blog. Now I’m able to add value to more than half a million people at any time, any day of the week. And think about this: I’m over sixty-five and nontechnical, and yet I’ve still been able to enter the electronic media age. That’s proof that anybody can change if he really wants to.
As I write this chapter, I am in Johannesburg, South Africa. Just a few minutes ago, my friend Collin Sewell, who owns some Ford dealerships in Texas, texted me the following, based on a quote by Mark Batterson: “You and I are only one defining decision away from a totally different life.” I believe that defining decision is the willingness to change.
The decision to change—and keep changing—is more than simply an act of will. It is a process, one that must first be started and then managed. The process and the progress will not go at the same rate for everyone. But there are certain similarities in the process for everyone, and it usually follows this pattern:
As a leader, I find this final stage in the process most exciting, because it can be the start of wonderful things on a team or in an organization. It can set new direction, change culture, and build momentum. If you are a leader, you will probably enjoy it, too. But it’s important for you to understand that not all people take ownership of change to the level where they are willing and able to be vision carriers and communicators. But the more who do, the sooner and steadier the change will occur.
If you want to maximize your ability to pay the price of learning and set yourself up to change, improve, and grow, then you need to do the five following things:
Back when I used to do a lot of marriage counseling for couples, I found that most people came into the process intent on seeing the other person change. I believe that is part of the human condition: to look for the faults in others and minimize our own. But that’s not how you improve any relationship.
My friend Tony Evans writes,
If you want a better world,
Composed of better nations,
Inhabited by better states,
Filled with better counties,
Made up of better cities,
Comprised of better neighborhoods,
Illuminated by better churches,
Populated by better families,
Then you’ll have to start by becoming
A better person.
If you want to see positive change in your marriage, quit looking for a better person and become a better person. If you want to see positive change in your career, quit looking for a better employer and become a better employee. In life, if you want more, you must become more.
If changing yourself seems overwhelming, then start small. Howard Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, says, “Most couples in trouble think that for things to improve, extraordinary changes, if not a miracle, have to take place.” That’s not true. “The breakthrough,” says Markman, “comes when we realize that by making even small changes in ourselves, we can effect big, positive changes.” That principle is also true for individuals wanting to make changes. So if you want to make big changes, start with small ones.
Many years ago, I read a quote by poet and scholar Samuel Johnson that has been a foundation of my attitude and development. Johnson asserted, “He who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.”
Trying to change others is an exercise in futility. No one can change another person. I didn’t always know this. For many years my life was filled with disappointments over other people’s unwillingness to grow. For years I waited for them, hoping for progress. Too many times I have hoped circumstances would change, only to be disappointed. Anything you try to change that is outside of your control will ultimately disappoint you. What’s worse, I have also discovered that when I try to change those things that are outside of my control, I start to lose control of those things within me that I can change because my focus is wrong. That’s a trap to be avoided.
What’s the solution? Changing my attitude. That is completely within my control, and the beauty of it is that this one change can be a major factor in changing my life for the positive. In controlling my own attitude and choosing to think correctly, I can minimize the negative effects of those around me who have bad attitudes. I can stop taking it personally when someone in my life won’t change. I can see opportunities where once I saw obstacles. And the best news is that, as author and speaker Wayne Dyer says, “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at actually begin to change.”
All my life I have loved people and valued relationships. Yet early in my life I realized that most of my friends were not on the same journey I was choosing to take. After I discovered the impact that personal growth could have on a person’s life, I became highly intentional about growing. Many of my friends were not. When I saw this, I realized I was going to have to choose between my future and my friends. It was a painful choice, but I chose my future.
My mother used to tell me all the time, “Birds of a feather flock together.” She said this because she wanted me to be aware of any negative influences in my life when I was a boy. But the truth is just as important when applied to positive influences. If you want to be a growing person, you need to spend time with growing people. If you want to be someone who embraces positive change, you need to hang around with positive learners.
There’s an old saying: “A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.” Your friends will either stretch your vision or choke your dreams. Some will inspire you to higher heights. Others will want you to join them on the couch of life where they do their least. Because not everyone wants to see you succeed, you have to make a choice. Are you going let the people who aren’t growing bring you down? Or are you going to move on? This can be a painful and difficult choice, but it can change your life for the better.
I have to admit that I’m very passionate about this, because I know how critical it is to a person’s success. Think about the negative impact that can occur when you spend time with the wrong people:
There are many roads in life that lead to nowhere. And there are plenty of people who will invite you to follow them there. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. Every minute you spend with the wrong people takes away the time you have to spend with the right ones. Change accordingly.
One of life’s important questions is “Who am I?” But even more important is “Who am I becoming?” To answer that question satisfactorily, we must keep one eye on where we are and the other eye on where we will be. Most people don’t do that. They have one eye on where they have been and one eye on where they are now. That tells them who they are. (Some people don’t even examine themselves that much.) However, to know who you are becoming requires you not only to know where you are now but also to know where you’re going and how you need to change to get there.
If you are determined to change and to live a life above and beyond average, know that you need to do things differently as you look ahead. You must…
Successful people are realistic about their problems and find positive ways to approach time. They know that hope isn’t a strategy.
Successful people don’t allow their feelings to determine their behavior. They behave their way into feeling so that they can do what they must to grow and keep moving forward.
Successful people do two things that many other people don’t: they initiate action, and they finish what they start. As a result, they form the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don’t.
You’ve probably heard the statement “If you want something you’ve never had, you must to do something you’ve never done.” It’s also true that if you want to become someone you have never been, you must do things you have never done. That means changing what you do every day. The secret to success can be found in your daily agenda. Average people don’t put in the extra work every day to keep growing and changing.
Professional baseball pitcher Satchel Paige said, “It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you—it’s what you do know that just ain’t so.” That is so true. There are many things that each of us learns are wrong, and we must unlearn them if we want to get better. Unlearning them can be difficult, but that is just another price we must pay if we want to grow.
Recently I read an article by leadership coach Lance Secretan in which he describes working with intermediate skiers and in one day teaching them to do advanced skiing on moguls (bumps) and double black diamond runs (expert only). He says being able to do that so quickly confounds many skiing experts. But Secretan says the secret lies less in helping skiers learn new skills and more in helping them unlearn some. He writes,
When you are frightened, you calcify your attitudes and beliefs—you resort to the familiar and close your mind. New learning is impossible, and effectiveness is impaired. An intermediate skier, facing a 60-degree pitch, will resort to old habits—a snowplow (the skis are wedged to slow speed) or side slipping (the skis are angled at 90 degrees to the incline of the slope). Until these old habits are set aside, no learning progress can be made.
Unlearning is a prerequisite for growth. Unlearning is like seeing the world with new eyes. To unlearn, you: 1) admit that an old practice, belief, or attitude is not solving the current problem and that doing more of it won’t lead to desired outcomes; 2) open your mind—yield to the view that there are alternatives to the way you’ve always done it until now; 3) switch from trying to rationalize the use of your long-favored solution to asking questions about how you can change, learn, and grow; 4) commit to terminating the old way forever; and 5) practice and perfect the new way.9
Unlearning outdated or wrong ways of doing things can be difficult. We tend to lean on what we know, even if it’s not the best for us. The secret is to allow yourself to be wrong and to be willing to change for the better. Psychiatrist David Burns says it this way: “Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.”
Change is difficult for all of us, yet it is essential if we want to turn our losses into gains. It is the price we must pay for learning. And don’t let anyone tell you, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” A lot of dog trainers have proven that statement to be false. Besides, the ideas in this chapter are not written for old dogs and they are not about tricks. They are for people like you and me who want to change, learn, and grow. And we can do it—if we’re willing to pay the price.