When Carmine Gallo interviewed
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz years ago,
Schultz told him
“We’re not in the coffee business.
It’s what we sell as a product
but we’re in the people business
—hiring hundreds of employees a week,
serving sixty million customers a week,
it’s all human connection.”
The company I’m currently working with
originally thought of themselves
as being in the cellphone business.
The competition in that business increased,
and they wanted to grow.
That growth came
when they repositioned themselves
as a company that
helps their customers communicate.
Bam.
Their market expanded.
One of my writing buds
saw herself as
writing print books.
She resisted eBooks
and audio books
and other new technology.
It was only when she began
to see herself as
providing stories
that she embraced change
and the future.
Your view of who you are matters.
It defines what you can and you cannot do,
what you look at and what you discard.
Take some time
and examine who you believe you are.