The Mirage of Stability
I hate hearing pleas for stability by those running companies.
Perhaps even worse, are those vying for our votes who claim they aim to bring such vaunted calm to our lives.
I cannot think of anything worse for humanity. Nor your personal place within.
It is a construct so beloved by not just policy makers but economists, financiers and the management class too that it makes me scream. They're all so misdirected. But we should already know this of their ilk.
Well, 'what's the opposite?', they cry. 'Instability!' And who wants that.
Utter rubbish.
Actually, they use different antonyms. Chaos. Turmoil. Volatility.
And their favourite go-to fear factory; Decline.
I deliberately also cite that last one.
Because in fact it is precisely decline which stability precedes.
You can never stand still. To do so is to stagnate, to fall backwards.
There must always be a jolt. A state of flux. Even if just around the corner. Or over the horizon. Change is a-coming. That's a constant.
Yet way too many who should know better spend their energies trying to ward such like off. So they may say, 'we all steady here, everything's fine, thanks'. In reality choosing stability over dynamism, growth and 'good'. Such delusion.
I firmly believe true success - of the sustainable, repeatable, desirable kind - comes not from seeking stability, but embracing the folly of pursuing such a state. Simply put, embrace uncertainty.
Actual, mutually beneficial progress in solution sales stems from lasering on a problem you fix. Then uniquely delivering your way of letting those afflicted overcome it.
Not all B2B selling is in response to a storm. Whether not long ripped through, currently being ridden or forecast.
Yet the majority is intended to ensure they storm-proof in some way.
It is in large part how things can get better.
If you pitch stability, you're selling nothing. No improvement. No future. No worth.
Better to pitch how to stop being damaged by that storm, in whatever form it takes, today and tomorrow.