The fear of change.

There are many fears in this world. Fears of snakes/spiders and the dark to name a few, but what is the most universal fear among most humans. I would say it is 'Change.' Change of any sort is so feared that people will fight against it even if it is good for them.


Why is this? Is it the fear of the unknown or have we been programmed from very young to have set rules that we must follow.


The world is changing quickly. Technology is changing so quickly it is hard to keep up. New words have been created like 'Exponential organisations'. We now have organisations like Uber, Alibaba,  Airbnb but the general populations don't know how they work. They can't fathom that these new business can make billions of dollars in only a few short years. Businesses that have been successful for years can not understand why or how business is changing and they can't keep up. Look at Kodak once one of the most successful companies in the world and now it barely exists. If they had looked ahead and embraced change maybe they would still be a leader today.


Traditionally we have been taught that businesses should be a top down structure with bosses, managers, assistant managers. But if you look at the structures of these new exponential organisations you will see a much more horizontal structure. When we were taught about market share we looked at physical boundaries. Exponential organisations have exponential market share. Basically the sky's the limit. This in it self is hard to fathom, it's hard to understand because we can't measure it. Who is your target market? Marketing 101. Well now it has the potential to be everyone. This does not however make everyone feel comfortable. We like to live in our own space. Villages use to work together to bring in the harvest, families use to work together to run a family business now we have the tools to do a lot of things ourselves.
A lot of people say fear is in the mind. Worry will make us ill. It would be disrespectful to tell people their fear is not real, to them it is. But you have to remember that we are all in the same boat. Change is going to happen and we will see amazing achievements by some very smart people but that does not make us any less important. Everyday day there is something new that will change the world, I say bring it on. I want to see how we can change the world in my lifetime. I'm along for the ride.