Everyone and every business has rules… rules that start off often as decisions but somehow morph into inviolable rules. What rules have you set up for yourself/your business, implicit and explicit? Have you taken a look at them lately? Maybe it’s time you do…
…with a big Sharpie in hand for editing.
This idea is particularly important for those of you who have been in business for a while. More than likely, you have rules that are holding you and your business back. They may be as simple as the choice of lights or lenses you always always use or more complex like how you define and charge usage.
Here’s a quick hint to help you identify the suspect rules: if you say “In my day…” or “That’s not the way it’s done…” you probably have some examinable rules.
I think you should break your rules… at least once in a while. Why? Because really it’s a form of testing to see if these inviolable dictates are helping or hindering you and/or your business. See, often we set up rules which sound logical but which are, in reality, just a way of playing it safe.
You can’t play it safe and be a successful businessperson. Hell, you can’t be a successful person either.
I’m writing from experience. Trust me, I love rules. Stephen Webster used to say when I worked with him that I was born with a red pen in my hand and that I was an idealist. Both are signs that I love order and regularity and, most of all, predictability. I want society to follow the rules and law school makes perfect sense with that mindset.
At the same time, that love of the rules has held me back in the past. Rigidity is not good. The buildings that fall in earthquakes are the rigid ones and, hoo boy, our industry is in the middle of a looooong temblor.
Experience has taught me to let go and challenge my rules and I have done more and been happier because of that. A simple example: just this year I rode on the back of a Harley in Los Angeles freeway traffic, lane sharing (that is, going in-between the cars already in lanes–legal in CA), for the first time. I hardly knew the man in control of the machine and I loathe LA traffic so much I’ll avoid driving there (in a car!) whenever possible. So, that act challenged all sorts of my beliefs and rules and tested my abilities. I thought I’d hate it, especially the lack of control, but instead it was fantastic. Now I feel like I can do things I never thought I could before. I got confidence in myself and a renewed ability to trust others which I have since applied to my studies and business.
Loosening your rules, challenging your long-held beliefs, trying something new, letting go of “in my day” thinking and external rules (“it’s not done that way” bah!), those will all help you to get through the bouncy business times we’re in. So what if no one else has packaged usage the way you do or shot that kind of image with that lens or made a promo like that… do it anyway. Challenge the status quo if you want to be successful, and start that by challenging your own rules.