Your history is less important over time. (1 min read)

A friend of mine has kids with GSCE exams (national exams taken 16 years old in the UK) coming up and they are not motivated to study for because they think that the subjects are easy and that the results won’t matter later in life. 

I spent some time thinking on this and concluded that the GCSEs are important because they are now. They matter a lot until you have done the next thing (A-levels) which in turn matter a lot until you have done the next thing (degree, social or work achievements). It pays to stay present. 

Then I thought how much this also applies to individuals, brands and employers. The terms “has been” or “one hit wonder” or “resting on laurels” are not positive descriptions of the current status of anything or anyone. 

In business and in life event or achievement relevance has a half-life or put another way: 

"Your history is important. Your most recent history is the most important."

How to change the outcome?

To be considered present, credible and attract contemporary interest you should be focusing on creating milestones in the near future that are going to be your recent history in the near future. This works for companies, for brands and for people and it's ok to create milestones that were not there by breaking big achievements down into parts.

As an individual it can change the way you think by creating steps in your career, your social and your family life that are each the paths to recognizing your own successes while staying focused on the future.

As a brand thinking like this you can quickly change the perception by creating a story through individual events in the recent history of the brand and go from there.

Give it some thought and have a great day.

I'm James Ient, APAC CFO of Compagnie Financiere Tradition and I write about approaches to the motivation, efficient and problem solving in the work place.