Make Change Work for You summary

Some people seem to take risks all the time without the slightest sense of insecurity. But how do they do it? No one is born with unlimited courage. Rather, it’s a skill which can be learned.

Because having courage doesn’t mean that you don’t have fear. Instead, it simply means that you’re being practical and realistic.

Fear is a destructive force. It distracts us from our goals and erects barriers that negatively impact our choices. To overcome these barriers, you’ll need to practice mindfulness, that is, being aware of when you feel discomfort or anxiety, and taking the time to pause and assess your situation.

As soon as you recognize your fears for what they are, they immediately lose their power over you, because now you can start working on them objectively.

Fear takes many different forms, one of which is paranoia, the suspicion of being outperformed and outmaneuvered by competitors.

As with the fear of failure, paranoia can also be translated into signals which can help you to assess your situation.

As we’ve seen, failure is a valuable part of learning for future projects. However, this means nothing if you don’t have the will to actually carry through your goals.

Sustaining interest in a long-term goal and maintaining your efforts to achieve that goal require grit.

It seems like everyone is looking for some magical formula for success. Luckily, such a formula exists, but we tend to overlook it due to its simplicity. All we have to do is try, learn and try again, despite uncertainties and anxiety, until we succeed.

Indeed, with enough attempts and enough time, sooner or later you’ll stumble upon a successful innovation.

Even if your business is successful and relevant, there’s no guarantee that it will always be that way. In today’s dynamic markets, relevance is more like a condition than a quality, so you’ll need to keep changing to remain valuable to customers!

The key for sustaining relevancy is constant reinvention. In order to recognize and take full advantage of opportunities, you must always be willing to change and adapt yourself.