Boundaries & Perception - The difference between the FEW and the FORGOTTEN
There was once a rather intelligent gentleman by the name of Albert Einstein. In 1942 he happened to be teaching at Oxford university. And one day he gave a Physics exam to his senior students. After the exam, while he was walking along the campus with his assistant, the assistant could not help but ask, ‘’Sir Dr. Einstein, isn't this the very same exam you gave to the very same students one year ago?’’ Einstein replied, ‘’Yes, the very same’’. ‘’But, what's the point of that?’’ asked the assistant. Einstein replied, ‘’Well, the questions are the same, but the answers have changed.’’
The answers have changed.
We live in a World where the questions have been the same all the time, however, the answers are constantly changing. In other words, the solutions that got us to this point are no longer the solutions that will propel us forward. And the ones who identify this and alter their strategy are the ones we tend to call trailblazers. They’ve mastered the ability of using everything they can, from everything they’ve got, to get everything they possibly could.
Typically, when people, teams & organizations hit a wall, they tend to do one of two things:
- More of the same
- Less of the same
But what we seldom see is them doing things differently. From a quantitative perspective, approximately 3% of people are inclined to do things differently, while the remaining 97% continue to sing the same tune albeit with increased intensity.
Why is that?
Digging into that further could lead us to question the entire purpose of thinking. What is the purpose of thinking? Maltese physician & psychologist Edward de Bono once said - ‘’The purpose of thinking is to stop thinking.’’ And he was right. Thinking is a high energy activity. By default, whenever we think, we try and keep it as short as possible to conserve energy, and then switch to autopilot mode. While this ingenious technique (thanks to millions of years of evolution) is a brilliant energy conservation tool, an over reliance on this function leads to what we call Mental Myopia aka Tunnel Vision aka Bad Business Decisions.
We typically witness a large portion of entrepreneurs and companies with genuine value propositions that tend to undersell. What separates the average from the mega performers is their ability to think beyond preconceived boundaries.
Typically there are 4 boundaries within which businesses tend to think:
- Legal boundaries
- Technological boundaries
- Logistical boundaries
- Moral boundaries
About 97% of businesses tend to limit their thinking within the above boundaries. What tends to limit the potential of most otherwise good business models are the lack of updated information and perseverance to push boundaries.
The boundaries within which we think are actually smaller than we think. This happens to be true not just in life, but also in business. We identify the boundaries of this box by the term - Industry Standards / Norms. Pushing even one of the above boundaries can significantly impact the effect and conversion rates of your business.
If your business is doing what everyone else is doing, you’re not distinguishing yourself and that affects everything from your top line to your brand equity. Perhaps this is why only about 3% of brands are able to achieve extraordinary results.
Often the true difference between an ordinary business and an extraordinary one is a decision. And any business with a credible value proposition can be part of that 3% when industry standards / norms are not seen as boundaries, but as limits that need crossing.