Throngs of people are in love with tradition and go to great extremes to hang on to “what is.” They simply don’t want to admit that times are changing and refuse to buy into the thought that they will need to make any adjustments.

I reflect on companies like Sears, Blockbuster, Radio Shack, BlackBerry, and Kodak (there’s a theme here) who were convinced their business model was impenetrable.

Hmmmm.

At one time, these companies endeared the respect of countless customers and Wall Street admirers. Unfortunately, blinded by their own success and blindsided by other companies’ innovations, they faltered and failed. Tradition, not innovation, drove them to unavoidable extinction.

Describing the Future

Author and marketing guru Seth Godin reminds us that, “Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create instead.”

My mind gravitates toward Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon who all seem to understand their supremacy is only as secure as the innovative future they are envisioning and constructing. Leaders in these companies are not allowing their teams to sit on their hands and think they can forever enjoy the fruits of yesterday’s efforts.

Consider British business consultant Marcus Buckingham’s suggestion: “Leaders are fascinated by future. You are a leader if and only if you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with status quo. Because in your head, you can see a better future. The friction between 'what is' and 'what could be' burns you, stirs you up, propels you. This is leadership.”

If you retired today, would you be remembered as a leader who embraced the future and continually refined your image of what the future would look like? Or, remembered as the one who fell in love with the status quo and warmly allowed others to do the same?

Question Constantly

Tennis great Roger Federer embraced a healthy mentality about success. “I always questioned myself in the best of times,” he said, “even when I was world number one for many, many weeks and months in a row. At certain times during the year I said, ‘What can I improve?’ ‘What do I need to change?’ Because if you don’t do anything or you just do the same thing over and over again, you stay the same and staying the same means going backward.”

Great message: Don’t be consumed or too impressed with past success. Keep asking what needs to get better so we don’t stagnate and cause our own demise.

Reshaping the present and shaping the future are imperative for continued success and even survival.

Bill Gates believes, “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.”

Questions to Ponder:

When is the last time I changed anything in my daily routine?

How is my vision of the future different than the reality of the present? What am I doing to bridge the gap?