Change. We all strive toward changing the industry we are in, the way people use a product or service, the frame people hold in their heads, the lens through which they see the world, the way they interact, play, work.
But change always begins with oneself. To be successful as a change agent, we need to first change ourselves. Russian author Leo Tolstoy once said: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
To be truly successful at what we are doing, we need not only understand the customer, product, market and competition but also ourselves. Understand what we are good at and what not, what our values are, what we need and can’t be with. What we stand for and aspire to be. And how this fits into the much bigger context of our community, the people who surround us and the ones we want to reach.
To change the world, often we need to change ourselves.