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In the heart of the Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California, slight incorrect calculations caused the domino effect, which modified all the pieces in how I approach business and life. The child of a hummingbird, not larger than a few of my fingers, was looking at the open door on my balcony. What happened later, not only a story about an attempt to save, but a deep lesson business And a life that I never expected to teach from such a small creation.
As entrepreneurs and business leaders, often pleased with our problems solving problems. That day my partner and I threw all the pieces on the situation. This cute little bird was clearly confused and began to panic. We didn’t want to hurt the animal or scare him greater than already.
We tried the brooms, mops and even Swiffer prolonged throughout the entire length, trying to lead the hummingbird back to the open door. We tried to do all the pieces dark except the door, hoping that he would see the apparent path and follows light. We created makeshift solutions really useful by friends and videos on YouTube, reminiscent of adding sugar to bowls of water, and ultimately to Swiffer itself. Each attempt was met with the same result – a failure, but with a slight variability. Sounds familiar?
The behavior of the Koles was fascinating and frustrating familiar. An hour after an hour he was floating near the ceiling, caught in something that seemed an infinite loop between two lighting frames. The bird found what he considered a protected zone, a predictable pattern that offered the illusion of security. Despite our efforts, to lead him towards freedom, he remained steadfastly involved in the chosen path.
We covered high windows with dark pads to eliminate false outputs. We hit the blanket around the room to reduce its options. The everlasting reflection of sunlight remained on a small spot of the ceiling, recalling like a siren call to this child. Bird, like many of us in ours corporationsHe was still chasing this artificial light – such an excellent metaphor that it hurts to witness.
The solution was temptingly easy: if Hummingbird just flew two feet lower and the foot on the right, he would find an open balcony door – his ticket to freedom. But it wasn’t. It couldn’t. Or possibly more accurately, no. The safety of the established pattern has change into its own prison.
When this drama developed, I couldn’t refrain from seeing the similarities to ours business behavior. How many times did we, as an entrepreneur, find ourselves in similar designs? We stick to what we know by circling the same strategies, the same markets, the same approaches. We can make minor corrections – a latest marketing angle here, a small product modification – but we mainly remain in ours comfort zones.
Think about the last time you met Business challenge. Did you immediately reach for tried and real solutions? Perhaps you simply added sugar water to your Swiffer, so to speak, as an alternative of pondering completely to your approach?
The comfort zone is seductive. It offers predictability, knowledge and a sense of control. But like our friend Kolibra, the perceived safety can change into a trap. In business, it’s going to remain in the comfort zone for too long, it may well lead to stagnation, omitting possibilities and ultimately aging.
I know that entrepreneurs who are most frequently successful have one common feature: they often force themselves to look beyond their immediate surroundings. They understand that breakthrough moments rarely come from doing the same things a bit in another way. Instead, they arrive from taking the calculated risk and the desire to fly two feet lower and the feet on the right side of the place where they sometimes work.
Let’s consider corporations reminiscent of Netflix, which began as a DVD-BAIL service, but was ready to go beyond a convenient business model to apply a streaming transmission. Or think about IBM transformation from a hardware company into a giant of services and clouds. These were not only small differences in existing topics – these were fundamental changes that required leaving a friend’s safety.
The fear and panic of our tiny hummingbird experienced when an attempt to escape reflects the emotions that many of us feel in the face of a significant change. It’s natural. This is human. But unlike our feathered friend, we have a cognitive ability to recognize our Patterns And consciously determine to break them.
So how is it practical to take this unexpected meeting? Here is a challenge that I suggest: be a wheel for one day, an hour or even only a minute – but with consciousness. Watch your designs. Where are you floating? What artificial lights are you chasing? Most importantly, what would occur if you flew a little lower and a bit on the right side of the usual path?
Try these steps:
- Map your flight pattern. Take half-hour to write down Business challenges And typical answers to them, identifying where you may “circulate the same lighting fixtures” in your skilled life.
- Create a zone of two feet. Choose one current business challenge and force yourself to generate three completely latest solutions that you simply have never tried before, even if they initially seem uncomfortable or unconventional.
- Plan pre -set flights of freedom. Block two hours a month, specially devoted to discovering a latest one business possibilitiesMarkets or strategies just outside the current operation, treating this time as a saint as any other business involvement.
Next time you face a business challenge, lean your willingness to reach the usual Solutions. Instead, take a moment to look at two feet except for the normal vision. Ask yourself: do I solve the real problem or just add to Swiffer?
Path to growthA breakthrough and freedom often lies just outside our comfort zone. It is not about making dramatic, reckless changes. Sometimes it is so simple as making a small correction in our perspective or approach. The window for the occasion might be closer than you think – if you wish to free yourself from known designs that keep circulation on the spot.
In business, as in life, the lamps we chase are not at all times those who will lead us to a place where we must go. The real query is: are you ready to try one other flight path?
How did the Hummingbird saga end?
After a few hours, the bird began to panic and flew faster and faster. He did the exact opposite of what he should do, i.e. decelerate and look for one other solution as an alternative of trying the same over and once again. We headed through a bird and did the same.
Finally, we realized that the only way to help this little bird is to lower the ceiling. It seems crazy, right? How do you lower the ceiling of the building? Together we got here up with an unusual way to do this.
We found two large cardboard boxes and settled the bird (gently) with one of them. Then we moved the second box on the ceiling in parallel, mainly creating a makeshift bird cage with a cardboard ceiling. We slowly left all the triangular bird cage until the latest “ceiling” was rinsed with the upper a part of the door. The bird immediately flew into a large blue sky.