The Importance of Seasons
Seasons for Entrepreneurs
Seasons are cyclical: Spring leads to Summer, Summer leads to Autumn, Autumn leads to Winter and Winter leads back to Spring.
Such seasonal cycles apply to industries as well! So you have sunrise and sunset businesses/industries!
Knowing in which season the industry is, that you are operating in and ensuring your natural ability is in sync with the same is very critical not only to your financial health; but to your very survival.
Let me explain this with an example. There was a time when the glass industry was booming. Glass was used in the electrical industry (bulbs and tubes), medical industry (family physicians used to give their own liquid medicines in glass bottles! Medicines were packed in bottles, syringes and thermometers were made of glass and blood was collected in glass bottles. Pickles and other food items were sold in glass bottles. Grocery shops put their products in display in glass jars etc. The high point for the glass industry came when soft drinks were sold in glass bottles.
Then PET came onto the scene and gradually plastic began replacing glass – in industry after industry. The Pharma industry began using plastic for packaging. At home, glass bottles and containers got replaced with plastic. Same happened with a host of other industries. The nadir for the glass industry came when soft drinks manufacturers moved to PET bottles. The industry went into a long winter. It took over 30 painful years for the glass industry to make a comeback. Comeback it did in terms of decorative glass items (low volume, high value now versus high volume, low value earlier). And glass is increasingly replacing plastic as the healthier packaging and storing alternative.
So what would you do for 35 years till glass made a painful invisible transition? If you are “married” to your profession or industry, you could be in serious trouble – especially as the rate of change accelerates in today’s world.
So what do you hold on to and what do you let go off? What could be permanent for you and what is temporary?
