“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” – Muhammad Ali
I heard someone say recently that one of the things she was most proud of in her career was the fact that she’d stuck to the same principles in 2024 that she was following in 1994. She was referring to the fact that she still treated people kindly and fairly, she was honest, and she tried to provide her customers with a good product for the money she was paid. All good things.
But while she can feel good about treating people well for thirty years, her statement made me think. How many things do we do today that we’ve done for years that aren’t still relevant? The things she mentioned were the kind of ethical or integrity-type things that never get stale. It’s always right to be kind and fair, etc.
What about other things? I know leaders who are trying to manage their people the same way today that they did years ago. Are people the same? Is the world those people live in the same? Of course not. So why would we manage them in the same way?
Think about how many other things are like that. We try to handle people and customers and whatever else in the way we learned years ago, but we’re not living in the same world, and a lot of the things we learned are no longer good enough. Yet, we keep trying, because that’s what we were taught years ago by people who led in a different era which no longer exists.
We have to change the way we do things. No, the underlying “be a decent human being” part doesn’t change. Virtually everything else does. Even things that worked in the past – sometimes for decades – may not work anymore. Even things we learned from people we respected who were wildly successful may not work anymore.
Take a look at how you lead. How many things are you doing that you’ve been doing for years? Are those things still working? Or are you just doing them because at some point someone told you to do it that way?
We don’t like to admit it, but if we’re really honest, there are a lot of things like that. Most leaders get to a certain point in their careers and then stop growing and evolving. Don’t be one of those leaders. Constantly challenge what you do and who you are. It’s the only way to keep growing.
