The Greatest Risk to Anyone Is Doing Nothing

About 3-4 weeks ago, I got a phone call from an ex-client who I developed a pretty good friendship with and he said, "I just want to thank you. Are you aware of what happened to my old employer?" I said no, what's going on? He said, "They filed for bankruptcy."

The company had had a switch with leadership and it did not go well. This gentleman was not being heard and he was very concerned. He was worried because he didn't have a degree and didn't know what he was going to do. He admitted he wasn't a big risk taker.

I'd told him the greatest risk you can have is doing nothing.

Now, the other story I'm going to share is about my wife. My wife has been a pediatrician in practice for 25 years, and the company who employs her is going through major changes which in theory, wasn't great for her. She didn't want to start her practice over. People will tend to push back and ignore their present reality in the pursuit of avoiding to change something. Yet change is inevitable. The greatest risk we can take is doing nothing.

My wife stuck it out and she was the last one in her group to do so. That's how much this organization was having a challenge.

My friend, my client who called me 3-4 weeks ago, he said, "Do you remember the comment you made that you said someday when I move on and I'm successful and I start learning to believe in myself, people are going to start calling me for advice? It's happening." The other people who were calling him for advice had done nothing.

I did a poll with a financial services firm. I asked how many of them are learning something outside of their current job that could help their career, but it's not done through the company or on company time. About 40% of people said they were doing nothing. Another 20% said maybe an hour.

Studies show when people are learning, they're happier. When you learn, you protect yourself and you insulate yourself from market shifts.

I took a course last night on AI and I'm looking at it because it's going to affect our coaching space. Do I think it'll replace human-based coaching? Absolutely not—I think it will accelerate it. Yet I need to learn what it is, and there is not a doubt in my mind that it's going to disrupt every industry. What are you going to do? Most don't want to learn it; most just want to stick their heads in the sand and keep plugging away in their own reality. You may not have a choice.

So what if you learned it before someone else even thought about learning it?

Here's another story about my son. He's an interior painter, and he's painting our house right now because we're getting ready to sell. All of a sudden I'm looking at our kitchen and I'm marveling at how good it looks. My son is really good at what he does. AI is not painting the inside of your house anytime soon. He has decent job security.

Over thirty years ago, I had a secretary whose husband worked on a proprietary machine, so he was a specialist. He had special knowledge and skill for this one machine, and I remember her telling me the union's really going to stick it to the owner. I asked her why would they want to stick it to the owner who started the company out of his garage, grew it into a multi hundred million dollars, some business into a billion publicly traded? Aren't you guys on the same team?

By the way, I'm not against unions. But this particular company and their union had an adversarial relationship. What they failed to realize was that mentality was a dangerous proposition. Yes, people want to make more money, but I told her to advise her husband to be careful; to not let somebody speak for him because what's going to happen is they could move those jobs the next year. What ended up happening? The comapny moved all the jobs to Mexico and Alabama. As I understand it, her husband never regained his status or his income potential because he was very segmented. He was very focused on that one piece of equipment, and then the equipment went to Mexico and Alabama for cheaper wages.

Were they wrong, fair, unfair? I don't know. Think about that just for a second. What happened?

That person stopped learning.

How often do we hear in the workplace, "I just want to do my job and go home." Well, you just might be out of a job tomorrow if you stop learning, getting feedback, looking in the mirror, and differentiating yourself. When I do a lot of public speaking, I share this a lot. 71% in a Gallup study shows that people are neutral or actively disengaged or they're negative. Only 2.9 out of every 10 people are positively engaged.

There's never been a greater time to position yourself for job security and job growth. If you're learning, if you're getting feedback, you're going to feel different. You're mentally going to increase your self-awareness and your emotional intelligence. You're going to be perceived more positively. I hear the same objections all the time:

"Well, you don't understand. We're pretty busy. I've got a family and kids and a wife or a husband at home..."

I hear it every industry like it's unique. It's not unique. You either succumb or you overcome. There is no middle ground.

Truth be told, I'm building out a whole new piece of software. I'm building fourteen different AI tools and some AI-driven assessments as I sit here today. Twelve months ago, I had no thought of doing those. Do I think they'll land? Do I think they'll help people? Yes. Do I think we're going to use all of it? Probably not. I'm taking a sales training course right now. I'm also taking an AI course online right now. Do I think I'll learn all of it? No, but do I feel better? Hell, yeah.

If we have to learn, we have to ask for feedback. We have to think about ourselves as a brand. The key question you have to ask yourself is what have you learned and what have you done to differentiate you? Good luck.

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