"Don't judge your success by what you did before. Judge it by what you will do next!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
If your life is to be a play, always be prepared for a second act! Or perhaps, get into a mindset where you will always have even more complex performances with many different scenes and many different roles!
Have you seen the Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix? It's an interesting journey - he became one of the biggest action movie stars after a first career as a bodybuilding icon. And then, for a third act, he transitioned into politics and served two terms as the Governor of California.
Or how about Julia Child? She had a career as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during WWII. It wasn't until she was in her late 30s that she discovered her passion for French cuisine, and kicked off her second career as a TV chef, cookbook author, and culinary trailblazer.
These stories should inspire you to always consider reinvention and rethinking your future opportunities - if you are down in the dumps about your existing reality, always know that there is another reality that you could choose to invent and pursue!
At a personal level, it's never a good idea to rest on your laurels and rely on past success when the world around you is changing at such a furious pace. I will often point out that a young person today might find themselves in 5 to 7 different careers throughout their lifetime - and perhaps, 20 to 30 different jobs! How can you possibly endear yourself to your current reality when there are so many new potential realities that you might choose to chase?
Companies can chase a second act as well.
Nokia started in the 1860s making paper products and then became a rubber manufacturer in the early 20th century. Finally, in the 1960s, it reinvented itself yet again as a technology company, becoming one of the world's top mobile phone makers. (Oops! Not all reinventions guarantee future success, and this aspect of Nokia is part of another innovation and leadership story.) How about Nintendo? It started by making playing cards but then transitioned into being one of the world's most successful video game companies. In these situations, companies found a second act through a deliberate strategy and careful planning.
In other cases, cases, second acts can simply fall into your lap, and you need to recognize them for what they are. Avon was a book company until they realized that the free perfume they were giving away with door-to-door book sales could be a whole different opportunity. Wrigley's was a company in the soap and baking powder businesses until it too realized that the sticks of chewing gum it gave away as promotional items could be a whole new line of business.
Finally, there are the acts in the play in which new lines of business are established alongside existing successful lines of business. Then there is Amazon, a company that continually chases many new and different simultaneous second and third acts. It came to realize that the computing infrastructure it built to support its online commerce business could be resold to companies as a 'cloud' service - and just reported a growth rate of 17% year over year, with the last quarter reported revenue of $25 billion. Microsoft did the same thing, quickly pivoting to cloud services and growing it into a $35 billion business.
There is a commonality to all of these stories - never rely on what you've done before, but always chase what's next. Never presume that what works today is what will work tomorrow. Never presume that the reality you find yourself in right now will be the reality that you might pursue tomorrow.
Never believe that your past success should be the only thing in your future success!
Futurist Jim Carroll is an accountant who became a competitive intelligence professional who became an e-mail consultant who became an author and then a speaker on technology who then became a futurist.