What do you do when confronted with a new idea or way of doing something?
Do you immediately go, “It won’t work” or do you stop and consider it reflectively?
In business circles, Jay Abraham is considered a marketing genius. One of his mantras is that most innovation and new ideas comes from outside your own industry.
But you have to be open to them.
Transcript
What do you do when confronted with a new idea or way of doing something? Do you immediately go, “It won’t work” or do you stop and consider it reflectively?
My name’s Rashid Kotwal.
In business circles, Jay Abraham is considered a marketing genius. One of his mantras is that most innovation and new ideas comes from outside your own industry.
But you have to be open to them.
Heard an interesting bit about psychology along those lines. It seems that the average person needs about 72 hours to take on a completely new concept and give it consideration. In effect it takes time for the idea to percolate.
So my suggestion when presented by any new idea is not to immediately reject it, but “put it on the back shelf of your mind” and every now and then, take it down, look at it and see if something’s changed.
You might well be surprised at the new insights you get if you allow yourself the processing time.
Which reminds me of a story about an old Zen Abbot with his young novitiate. It was the novitiate’s first “day on the job” and they were having a ceremonial cup of tea.
The Abbot was pouring – and kept doing so until the tea overflowed the cup and went all over the table.
“But Abbot, the tea is overflowing, no more will go in”, cried the young novitiate. “Yes, I know”, said the Abbot. “You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
And so it is with your business. We all have blind spots. We do the best we can. But unless you empty your cup, nothing new can come in. And you will be the poorer for it.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
