It’s Never Good Enough

Fire was the primary source of light for a long, long time. In its crudest form, fire also produced heat for long time. Horses served as transportation for a much longer time than have automobiles. The book was written by hand long before Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s moveable type press was the principal technology of the written word for centuries.

Fire still provides light and heat. Horses still provide transportation. And the printed book is still quite effective for sharing ideas. There is nothing wrong with any of these things. They still work. Yet all of these have either been replaced or are currently being replaced by something better.

Things are never good enough. They’re not supposed to be.

All progress begins with the belief that things can be better than they are, that they can be improved.

Bring Your Creativity and Your Resourcefulness

Your clients may be satisfied. They may not believe that improvement is necessary or possible. But continuous improvement is necessary if your client want to remain competitive in a world that is globalized, commoditized, disrupted, and disintermediated. And their continuous improvement is every bit as possible as the electric light, the automobile, and the electronic reader. I don’t use these examples because your clients necessarily need anything as revolutionary, but they do need your help in progressing from their current state to a better future state.

It’s your role—and that of your company—to help your client imagine their future. It’s your job to bring your creativity and your resourcefulness to helping them produce greater results. You cannot afford to be complacent because your clients can’t afford for you to be complacent. Business is more challenging and more difficult than ever, and there is too much at stake.

You can’t believe that things are all that they could be. And you can’t allow your clients to believe it either.

You are the sharp end of the spear. But to be valuable to your clients and your dream clients, you have to believe that, even if they are satisfied, that better results are still possible. More still, you have to help them to find the ideas that move them into their better future. This is how you become a strategic advantage, and this is how you become a value creator.

It’s never good enough. And it’s a good thing that it isn’t.