The theme for this week is, Pioneer.

 

Should you be a pioneer? Should you pioneer something? Is being a pioneer an opportunity for success?

 

My default answer leading up to the week was, YES - yes, yes, yes.

 

Now my response is both YES & NO.

 

Oddly & coincidently, I listened to two podcasts this week that both spoke on this topic and both had the same message.

 

What was that message?

 

The first podcast wasn’t actually a podcast, it was a short video series I watched on a Delta flight with Howard D. Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks. The series is titled, Howard Schultz: Teaches Business Leadership. Each episode is about 10 minutes long, and in my usual fashion, I tend to gravitate towards mentally stimulating media where I can learn something new - and I absolutely did - I actually had to rethink, what I thought I knew.

 

I’d like to play this short clip for you, from the episode, so you can hear Howard in his own words, explain this concept:

 

CLIP

 

Wow, that just makes so much sense to me. And we can clearly see this behavior in our very own industry. Let me give you 3 examples:

 

A company that is no longer in business, yet, had unbelievable pioneering technology. This company was Accuwater.

 

Cool - so that summarizes the first audio clip that I made note of last week.

 

Now, let me let you about the 2nd, similar scenario.

 

Tuesday of this week, while doing an early recovery ride, in preparation for the Iceman mountain bike race happening this weekend, I was listening to the most recent episode of this Tim Ferris show, and his guest, Jim Collins. Jim is famously known for writing the books, Built to Last, and Good to great.

 

In this interview with Jim Collins, he spoke about his new book, Turning The Flywheel, and in this book, there was one quote that I had to write down. This quote nearly mirrored the previous quote from Howard Shultz.

 

Jim referenced another book titled, Will and Vision, by Gerard Tells & Peter Golder. In this book, the author demonstrates that the pioneering innovators in a new business arena almost never, (less than 10% of the time), become the big winners in the end!

 

This statement stopped me in my tracks.

 

Remember how at the beginning of this episode how my previous default thinking was, yes yes yes, to be a pioneer?

 

This turned that upside down.

 

Why would you choose to be a pioneer if the success rate is less than 10%? Again, I had to rethink & unlearn, what I thought I knew.

 

Let’s NOT pioneer, as Howard Shultz recommends, let’s disrupt!

 

I’ll play the quote from Jim Collins for you now.

 

 

Isn’t that incredible? I always considered myself and my personality as a Pioneer, and wore it like a badge of honor. Now, perhaps, I should think of it as a skill set, that can be used as a tool when needed, but it should not be the leading principle.