Are We More Loyal To Our History Or To Our Future?

The Roman Trap, Foundation or Fortress?

Think about the Romans. They built the greatest roads in the world. Those roads let them conquer that world. For centuries, they maintained the roads. The roads were their strength. The roads were Rome.

Then the world changed. The future was not on land. It was on the sea.

The future required ships.

Rome kept its loyalty to the roads. They knew roads. They trusted roads. Their identity was tied to the roads. That loyalty was a trap. It stopped them from seeing the ships.

What Are Your Roads?

Your company has roads.

They are the products that made you. The processes you perfected. The market you defined. The brand story you have told for years.

These things are your history. They are your success. They are good.

But are they a foundation or a fortress?

A foundation is something you build upon. It supports new structures. New ideas. New floors. It gives you the strength to reach higher.

A fortress is something you hide inside. It is built to protect you from the outside world. It has high walls. It is safe. But you cannot see over the walls. And you cannot leave.

The market changes. The customer changes. The world moves on.

The future arrives, and it often arrives by ship.

When you look at your business, ask these questions. Be honest.

1. Are we spending our time maintaining our roads or are we learning to build ships?

2. When a new idea appears, is our first instinct to see how it fits our history, or how it could create our future?

3. Is our history a foundation we are building on, or a fortress we are afraid to leave?

   
   

Your answers will tell you where you are loyal. And they will tell you what to do next.