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As I age, I am constantly struck by how many things have changed, and how many of us can change with the times. When we were babies, we learned at a breakneck pace, but the older we get, the more we rely on what we already know. For some of us, even good changes can feel somewhat uncomfortable.
My mother-in-law reminded me of this earlier this week. We had my wife's entire family at our house and talk naturally turned to everyone's favorite old stories. One of my best-loved tales came from my mother-in-law.
Living all her life in the New York City area, she was accustomed to seeing beautiful sunrises over the beach in the summer. And, after a number of years, that just started to seem "natural" to her. Never mind that most people don't live anywhere near a beach and never see that kind of sunrise—for Betty, that was normal.
Then, well into her adulthood, after many years of watching these sunrises, Betty took her first trip to California. And the beaches there were every bit as beautiful as those on the east coast—some would even say they were more beautiful.
But things didn't seem right to Betty. She felt somehow vaguely uncomfortable even in the midst of all this beauty. Finally, she blurted out what was wrong: "In California the sun is on the wrong side of the parking lot!"
I wonder if many of us feel the same way about Internet marketing. (You knew I would get around to Internet marketing eventually.) I mean, Internet marketing certainly seems to work for some people. Internet marketing often brings results we couldn't get any other way. And it's often dirt cheap, compared to any other form of marketing.
So, why are many of us still vaguely uncomfortable with it all? Why do we so often shake our heads and wish that things would stay they way they were? It's probably just our own discomfort with change.
It's normal to be uncomfortable with change—it's hard-wired into our DNA. The absolutely fearless among us were eaten millions of years ago. So, natural selection has made us a bit skeptical that the new thing is really all that much better than the safe thing we already know.
So, don't be so hard on your colleagues who "don't get it." You "don't get it" in lots of ways. Neither do I. I still listen to the radio. Yeah, that's right, I don't have an iPod. Why? It hasn't been a big enough priority yet. None of us keep up with everything—it would be overwhelming.
But I give people a lot of credit when they work through their discomfort. Because my 80-year-old mother-in-law overcame her sense that something was wrong. And she saw several awesome sunsets over that California beach.
Mike,
I agree. We may not all be suited for internet marketing. Change can be rough for sure. I do believe however that because of two points you made that I will continue to "evangelize" search marketing to small / medium business folks. 1. Internet marketing brings results we couldn't get any other way and 2. It can be cheap. Two very compelling reasons for any business person to at least consider changing the way "it's always been done"
The conflict between maintaining the status quo and striving for change is as old as our species. And in fact, it's not unknown in non-human species either.
Typically in human society we see the 'older' or 'controlling' generation settle into a way of doing things. Youth, in the meantime, look for 'better' ways of doing things and try to drive change. Not enough change leads to societal stagnation. Too much change is revolution.
To think that 'older people' are set in their ways and not as likely to change (i.e. maintain the status quo) while younger people strive for change is the expected norm. This doesn't mean that people aren't 'adaptable' as a species (and I have to call you out on trying to bring natural selection into this... that process requires many, many generations to manifest itself), it's just a very basic sociological paradigm... often called a 'generation gap'.
What has been happening since the 'great generation gap of the 60s' is that the 'older generation' has been far more amenable to accepting the changes inspired by youth. This is a facet of Societal Evolution. However, that doesn't erase the 'feeling' that we get as we age that 'if something works, why should we change it?'
I'm sitting out by the pool at the moment enjoying the last day of a family weekend.
Just this morning we were at the beach and I was caught for a moment in one of those day dream states... you know the kind. At that moment everything seemed very well, the world is in perfect order.
Then, as something jolted me back to reality, it occured to me that the beach often creates this sense in me. As one watches the waves come in, the water is in a perpetual state of change - and we find this soothing, provided that we are not being threatened by it. Change is like that in general, except that we often do feel threatened somehow by it all... the thought that something is slipping away, which we are unable to control.
It's funny really. Today, the internet is a BIG part of my business; however, 12 years ago I didn't even own a computer and doubted I ever would. Embrace change, it's really the only thing that can be counted on for consistency!