Question Everything

We have beliefs about everything, but not all of our beliefs are helpful or defensible:

  • Beliefs about self (“I’m not a risk taker.”)
  • Beliefs about others (“He’s an idiot!”)
  • Beliefs about our future (I can’t get a better job in this economy.”)
  • Beliefs about money (“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Technically true, but what are we really saying?)
  • Beliefs about employees (“We’d better not tell them everything.”)

Beliefs–we have to have them, there’s no way around that. But we don’t have to believe them. We don’t have to confuse our beliefs with facts. Facts are something we can prove over and over again and they’re true for everyone. Beliefs are only true when we make them true for ourselves.

If we want something better at work or in life, we have to begin with our beliefs. If we want something to change, we have to change the beliefs we cherish so much. That can be challenging because we are often unaware about what we really think and believe about important matters.

The next time we’re so sure what we believe is “right” and based on “reality,” it might be good to look over this list of some very smart people who believed the following:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
(Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943)

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
(Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
(Bill Gates, 1981)

“$100 million dollars is way too much to pay for Microsoft.”
(IBM, 1982)

Prediction about the Internet: It “will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” Robert Metcalfe in a 1995 issue of InfoWorld.

On consumer buying on the internet: “Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop – because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.”  Time magazine, 1966

Maybe everything is perfect in your life or at your company. If not, for something to change, something has to change. That something will always include our beliefs.

Now it’s your turn…leave a comment and I’ll be sure to reply.

Categorized in: , , , ,