Some Things Never Change
Every day, I hear someone say the world has changed.
Maybe so.
But go back just six years. Before Covid. Before we all became interior designers specializing in Zoom backgrounds. Before every conversation found its way to artificial intelligence. Before every expert seemed convinced that everything we knew about business had just become obsolete. When life felt a little more predictable and a little less apocalyptic.
What were clients, customers, and members looking for then?
Someone who understood the problem. Someone who could solve it. Someone who charged a fair price. Someone worth going back to.
Now ask the simpler question.
What are they looking for today that's any different?
...I'll wait...
Better yet. Go back six hundred years.
A woman walks into a bakery with a few coins in her hand. Her family needs bread for supper. She doesn't ask how the oven works. She doesn't ask where the flour came from, or how it was kneaded. She wants to know when the bread will be ready, how it will taste, and what it costs.
The oven may have mattered to the baker.
The bread is all that mattered to the customer.
And that's all anyone has ever wanted. Someone who understands the problem. Someone who can solve it. Someone who is fair. Someone worth coming back to.
The tools may be different. The conversations aren't. Technology often changes who solves the problem and how. But it never changes what people expect from the one who does.
So now, I watch organizations pour more money and resources into the newest tools, and less into the things that have always mattered most. And I know one thing as surely as I know anything.
They are going to lose.
History is littered with shortcuts that promised to replace the hard work of becoming attentive.
None of them did.
The woman never cared about the oven.
She cared about the bread.
Just like today. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow.
Remember that and you'll be fine.