I'm a troublemaker I know I may not look
that intimidating but I actually get
paid to look for trouble and I suspect
that many of you do - I'm in sales I
talked to a lot of people every day
about their business challenges and if
there's not some trouble in the mix we
don't really get anywhere in fact I find
that nothing worthwhile personally or
professionally ever seems to happen
without trouble it's like the gatekeeper
between where we are and where we want
to be so let's see if I could stir up a
little trouble here
see trouble has a bad name and I think
it's actually a friend than in-your-face
kind of friend the thing is it's always
in the mix and if you don't look for
trouble it's gonna come looking for you
isn't that encouraging I notice two
overriding mindsets that determine how
people deal with the trouble that comes
at them and the trouble they choose to
go after the fixer mindset and the
Builder mindset so which are you fixer
or builder we're gonna do a little
experiment here let's say the State Fair
is in town and you and I are walking
down the Midway together and there in
front of us next to each other is the
whack-a-mole and the high striker
which would you pick one is how fast can
we knock them all down and the other is
about swinging big how high can you hit
it so how many would choose the wacom oh
I see several how many would choose the
high striker well that's great you're
both here and truth is none of us can
just be one or the other fixer or
builder but the whack Amole makes me
think of the fixer it's all about
closing all the open loops and keeping
up and we all get in this mode from time
to time where we're just constantly
batting down all the problems the high
striker makes me think of the Builder
it's all about measured focused impact
swinging big and these Fixer builder
mindsets can have a huge impact on
business results I saw this play out
with a company called Blockbuster Video
remember them the multi-billion dollar
company put out of business by Netflix
right there's actually more to that
story I was there back in 2006 I was
assigned to the blockbuster account
worked with their operation for several
years and they had a great team I had my
own desk and a million square foot
state-of-the-art facility and for a
while there it was a fixers paradise but
what we didn't know then was the founder
of Netflix had actually visited
blockbuster for years prior to that and
offered to run the blockbuster brand
online
they laughed him out of the room he made
two visits there was even a CEO at
Blockbuster prior to that who also
wanted to take the brand online and he
was asked to leave the room let go they
were troublemakers
I got in trouble there for a second
they were troublemakers see blockbuster
didn't want to deal with the pain of
disruption so they had to deal with and
administer the pain of displacement of
letting people go and that's what I
recall that's what I did no one thought
about often when I walked out the doors
that blockbuster was all those people
whose job was now to patch up a ship
that was headed to the salvage yard and
look for another ship to jump to and I
was there to help them optimize the
distribution of a product that no one
wanted anymore it was said all because
leadership didn't want to take on the
trouble of transitioning to the new
reality meanwhile fast-forward Netflix
just had a record-breaking first quarter
this year again
there now have thirty two point nine
billion dollar company they've continued
to adapt to the market develop new
products create their own content
producer own content see while
blockbuster was busy playing
whack-a-mole and keeping up Netflix was
building the new model swinging big and
headed into new territory this builder
mindset is in high demand in the current
climate
I saw study recently that said that 40%
of the fortune 500 companies today's
fortune 500 companies on the S&P will be
gone in the next 10 years and the main
reason given is reluctance to embrace
change or what I would call failure to
look for and embrace trouble history is
filled with examples of the great
troublemakers who were willing to swing
big and I'm a little nostalgic here but
I always think of Abraham Lincoln who
won the presidential election then had
the gall to choose from his opponents to
form the inner circle of his
administration
all of these guys were better educated
better known more experienced Lincoln
had run a two-man law office just prior
to that election he had no law degree
but he wins and then seeing the trouble
ahead he forms the inner circle of his
in administration with those impotant
s-- many of them become his most devoted
allies Lincoln grows and goes on to
become this incredible leader during
what may have been the most difficult
time in US history and reading is about
his life I just marvel at the way he
constantly turns toward the trouble it
was like the medium in which is great in
this group we all have our Chubby's
don't we some we should avoid some we
should run from but I believe there's
another kind of trouble that wants to
take us somewhere a trouble that would
grow us and stretches kind of trouble we
should run toward the kind of trouble
that's worth the trouble thank you