10 Year Lesson #1 - Prince Rupert's Drop...

We have just celebrated our 10^th Anniversary in the Coaching and Development Business; we have the privilege of working with an amazing group of Clients; many of whom have become close friends and colleagues; we thank you all and look forward to the next stage of the journey together...

Over the years we have enjoyed the highs and lows, the wins and second places – the lessons have been invaluable;  and so I thought I’d share one here…

The 10 Year Lesson #1 – The Prince Rupert’s Drop Effect…

One evening after a Seminar in Birmingham, I was approached by a couple who owned a local hotel and restaurant. He simply said;

“This Business Coaching lark is all very well, but we have been in our business for 10 years now, what could you possibly teach us that we don’t already know…?”

Being tired I probably didn’t give the most appropriate response, it was something like this;

“Well it depends how successful you want to be; is your business giving you all that you want right now..?”

Clearly their business was struggling, but they believed that by simply working harder, doing more of what they “knew” would work they would somehow be OK – they declined the opportunity to meet and see what we could do together.

Their Hotel was on a busy High St and I would drive past it a few times a week – then one morning I saw the “For Sale” banner hanging over the doorway – the business wasn’t for sale, it had gone bankrupt, and it was just the building that was for sale.

The Prince Rupert’s Drop Effect…

If a small globule of molten glass is dropped into a tank of cold water, the glass will quickly cool into the shape of an extended tadpole – an oval head with an extending tail of glass that tapers to a point. 

Click HERE to take a look at a video of the effect in action.

The sudden chilling has the effect of “toughening” the glass, so much so that if you attempt to smash the oval head with a hammer, it will have little or no effect – the glass has become resilient to this particular type of stress.

However, if you simply snap the end of the extended “tail” the whole piece will literally explode into almost a powder – the glass has no resilience to this alternative form of stress.

In business the same thing tends to happen. Over the years, as experience builds we become particularly resilient to our anticipated environment – we get good at handling the stresses and strains that come at us on a regular basis. 

However, it is not the expected that gives us the most challenges, it is always the unexpected; the result of changes in our market environment that catch us out. If everything stayed the same in business every year, 10 Years’ experience would be the most valuable commodity in the world, but it doesn’t; so 10 Years’ experience is in reality only 1 Years’ experience photocopied 10 times. 

Worse than that, we believe that what we learned 10 years ago is good enough for the next 10 years, our belief exposes us to the dangers of threats we don't understand, and we miss opportunities because we simply dont recognise them.

Whilst we become accustomed to the regular hammer blows where we expect them – it is the simple snap of the tail that we don’t see coming that causes us the greatest difficulties.

So what is The 10 Year Lesson #1 – The Prince Rupert’s Drop Effect…?

Simply to stay open, keep learning adapting – don’t allow your greatest strength to also expose your greatest weakness.The market environment is changing at an ever increasing pace. What we knew 10 years ago doesn’t work anymore, all our experience means nothing unless we adapt it to suit the new conditions. 

The couple with the Hotel refused to change and someone simply snapped their tail and the consequences were disastrous – their Ego and Pride got in the way of simply asking for help.

Could I have helped them and saved the business…?

We will never know, but I’m sure that simply doing what they always did wasn’t good enough to give then want they always got…

Book a discussion with David – and explore the possibilities click HERE to find out more, or take a look at our website at www.resultsrulesok.com – Don’t Push the Red Button…!!