Change is often like the fable of the frog in boiling water.

The frog starts out in cool water and the temperature slowly rises. As the temperature rises the frog should realize the trend and hop out. But because the change is gradual the frog doesn't notice until it is too late; poached frog.

The point is not whether this fable is true (or not or to go try it out).

My Observations

I went to West Palm Beach Florida to attend the Bob Burg Go Giver Retreat in April.

I first met Bob on Twitter. At the time I had around 50 followers (I actually don't like the term followers in social media and think Twitter made a big mistake coining that term; it implies one way communication). Bob had 35,000. Something remarkable happened. He actually went out of his way to connect with me.

I read his blog. Commented. He replied.

I bought his Go Giver books. Liked them, a lot.

I saw a Tweet about the retreat. Looked at the speakers that were lined up. Decided I have to go meet Bob and the people who were connected with Bob (It turns out they all pretty much have some level of friendship with Bob).

I took the Go Giver Accelerator with coach Bill Ellis of Branding for Results from St Louis and he has become a friend as well.

Without Twitter this would not have happened.

Twitter has not been around very long and despite my technical background I resisted the change required to learn the medium and was a somewhat late adopter. Waste of time to hear about someone's choice for lunch.

I was wrong.

A Few More Twitter Stories

One of the people (Tara Rogers, Mojo PR) I met at the Go Giver Retreat travelled all the way from Dubai (yes the one in the middle east). We are now connected on Twitter.

I was jokingly Tweeting to another Go Giver friend in the UK (Lisa Settles, Telcare) about not being able to make The Breakfast Club because there weren't any flights only to find out it was a virtual meeting (silly me) and even though it was midnight for me, I met another half dozen people who meet first thing in the morning to connect.

The world is shrinking and connections that were difficult to make in the past are much easier now.

My Point?

My point is not about the wonders of Twitter, although it is pretty remarkable in its reach it is not for everyone.

My point is not about the wonders of Social Media in its entirety either. Again it is truly amazing but not everyone participates.

My point is:

The world is changing in remarkable ways. Just like the frog we are often too busy doing the things we always do in business (and life) to notice or we take it for granted.

The danger? We don't notice the importance of the change until it is too late.

Takeaways

  1. Make sure you take time in your business and professional career to really notice the remarkable things going on around you.
  2. If you use social media, use it to connect with people not broadcast your message. Sales is still about people.
  3. Make sure you have a plan (strategy) on where you are going and make sure you adjust the plan regularly.
  4. Make sure you build innovation and risk taking (willingness to adapt or change) into your business and professional development so you can take advantage of what is happening.

If you don't your competitors will.

What amazing changes have you been a part of or seeing in your business? How are you adapting? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.