WMU Class of 2021 private graduation ceremony
Adapt. Pivot. Adjust. Buzzwords that we have heard multiple times throughout 2020. This weekend our next generation of employees and entrepreneurs learned the value of these words.
This weekend we had the privilege of watching our daughter graduate with her B.S. Integrated Supply Chain Management Degree from Western Michigan University. When WMU cancelled their in person graduation, this group of students decided to pivot and adapt and create their own graduation.
It was a success and a great time by all.
As business owners we have found a need to do the same thing with recent challenges to stay successful. Those of us that feared this concept found themselves struggling to keep their doors open, remain competitive and also mentally stay in the game.
It has been a long year and a half of adjusting, pivoting, adapting and so focused on the problems at hand that at times we forget to celebrate how far we have come, the changes we have made and the what we have accomplished this past year, even if those accomplishments feel small.
These recent graduates are learning a life lesson earlier than most of us had to encounter.
They are learning that when life hands you lemons, pivot, adapt, adjust and make lemonade. Most important look for the silver lining and keep moving forward. Getting stuck in the “why me” or the “when will this end” cycle of questions puts you in a place of immobility. Sure we are human and going there for a bit is fine, but staying there is detrimental. Four years ago when we dropped our daughter off to college, none of us could have imagined that four years later a group of parents would be hosting their graduation, however that is exactly where we found ourselves and at the end of the evening, we all said “that was better than a regular graduation.”
I am sure most of us didn’t plan for what happened to our businesses this past year, but let’s show these future members of the workforce how we can take these lemons and turn them into revenue, opportunities and improved profits. You have to be willing. You have to let go of what was, what should have been and look for what best is yet to come. Turn life’s lessons into profitable gains!
If you need help strategically walking through what this might look like for your business, reach out, that is my speciality. I had to pivot my business back in 2008 during a recession. I adapted and pivoted before these became today’s buzzwords and I can honestly say it was the best thing that ever happened to my business. Now is the time to tell 2020 it was the best thing that happened to your business.
What is the number one thing you had to adapt in your business to survive this past year? Please share someone else might need what you have?
