Monday
Mar032008
New Adventures for the Old You
Monday, March 3, 2008 at 3:43PM 
What’s the point of a new idea? Is an alternative perspective valuable? Are new interests necessary? What would be your response to any of these questions? Our response would be three things: Shift happens. Things change. New realities emerge.
Regardless of who or what you are, the fact of the matter is that the landscape in which you work and play is continuously changing. The value in exploration, learning, and discovering is immeasurable. Positioning yourself in ways that allow these three things to happen builds an internal safety mechanism that keeps you away from the danger zone of ‘going nowhere fast’ as the world around you moves at, what seemingly appears to be, breakneck speeds. New ideas alone are great, but they become much more powerful when you couple them your own past experiences - i.e. bits and pieces of the old you. Do this and you have personal and professional growth H-bomb in the making.
With the new adventures of old you at your fingertips, the question now becomes how do you leverage what you have done in the past for what you want to do in the future? This is a question that should be on the minds of everyone from artists to engineers to entrepreneurs. Maybe you want to stay relevant? Maybe your goal is to adapt to changing scenarios. Maybe you'd rather stay ahead of the curve and be the epitome of re-invention. Any choice you make there is no one formula that solves this equation but there are plenty of interesting success stories.
Al Gore, after his loss (and fiasco) of the 2000 presidential race, turned his ‘loser’ status on its head to rise from a political no man's land to become an Academy Award winner, best selling author and a Nobel Prize winner. Thus engineering arguably one of the greatest brand makeovers of our time.
Apple Computers, founded in 1979, was more or less a fringe company with no real market power or ‘brand’ presence through 1997. Beginning in 1998, with the re-hiring of Steve Jobs, its ‘reinventing itself’ process went into play. In 2008 Apple (the word “computer” is now dropped) has re-branded itself as the leader in computer design, operating systems and multimedia innovation.
Outkast, the multi platinum and six time grammy award winning hip hop group from East Point, Georgia, after the release of their first album, Southerplayasticadillacmusic, became the masters of reinvention as they continuously created new characters and ideas about themselves and their music. They went from down south hip-hop heads to ‘alien’ space travelers to Prohibition-era juke joint hipsters. Constantly changing and evolving, they are one of the most innovative groups in music today.
Over the next few days I'll be discussing ‘how to reinvent yourself’ Threshold style! So if some parts of old you are ready for new adventures. . . buckle up and . . . stay tuned!
With the new adventures of old you at your fingertips, the question now becomes how do you leverage what you have done in the past for what you want to do in the future? This is a question that should be on the minds of everyone from artists to engineers to entrepreneurs. Maybe you want to stay relevant? Maybe your goal is to adapt to changing scenarios. Maybe you'd rather stay ahead of the curve and be the epitome of re-invention. Any choice you make there is no one formula that solves this equation but there are plenty of interesting success stories.
Al Gore, after his loss (and fiasco) of the 2000 presidential race, turned his ‘loser’ status on its head to rise from a political no man's land to become an Academy Award winner, best selling author and a Nobel Prize winner. Thus engineering arguably one of the greatest brand makeovers of our time.
Apple Computers, founded in 1979, was more or less a fringe company with no real market power or ‘brand’ presence through 1997. Beginning in 1998, with the re-hiring of Steve Jobs, its ‘reinventing itself’ process went into play. In 2008 Apple (the word “computer” is now dropped) has re-branded itself as the leader in computer design, operating systems and multimedia innovation.
Outkast, the multi platinum and six time grammy award winning hip hop group from East Point, Georgia, after the release of their first album, Southerplayasticadillacmusic, became the masters of reinvention as they continuously created new characters and ideas about themselves and their music. They went from down south hip-hop heads to ‘alien’ space travelers to Prohibition-era juke joint hipsters. Constantly changing and evolving, they are one of the most innovative groups in music today.
Over the next few days I'll be discussing ‘how to reinvent yourself’ Threshold style! So if some parts of old you are ready for new adventures. . . buckle up and . . . stay tuned!
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