Do You Have to or Want to?

Time to hop in the mental time machine and dial back ten years. Here are the top five tech gadgets that were introduced in 2011:

Amazon Kindle Fire

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Apple iPhone 4s

Samsung Smart TVs

Nintendo 3Ds

If you took the knowledge you had today about technology, sales, life or pretty much anything and were able to live back in 2011, you would be considered an absolute genius. Imagine having the conversations you’ve had this week with your clients about marketing. Conversations on SEO-SEM, geofencing, targeted display, influencer marketing using key radio talent, the explosion of audio in the marketing landscape all being led by radio and broadcast companies. Imagine having the knowledge you had right now and being able to have those conversations in 2011. This year, we put regular (okay, maybe not so regular, but non-NASA trained) people in space. 10 years ago, we would have thought that was a crazy, sci-fi movie in the making. Today, it’s reality.

The question isn’t whether we are going to learn something new or get better at what we already know, the question is when? Everett Rogers was a professor and author of the book Diffusion of Innovations. He created the Diffusion of Innovations Curve. This identifies how individuals adopt and adapt to change, new information and new technology.

We can choose to be “innovators,” or we can choose to be “laggards.” The evidence suggests that those who get past the comfort zone of “what’s now” and push to find “what’s next” enjoy greater success and lead their fields. This is true for technology, finance, marketing and sales skills.

What if instead of resisting and waiting until we have to, we push forward because we want to get better, we want to pioneer something new rather than waiting until we have no choice but to give up our grasp on the past? How much better could the next 10 years be?

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can also connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.