I was chatting with an acquaintance yesterday, and she asked how my business was doing during the pandemic. I said it’s been hit pretty hard, but I’m hanging in there. She admitted her business has been affected to, and then said, “But I swear if I hear the word “pivot” one more time . . .”
I asked if she remembered the scene in the TV show Friends in which Ross, Chandler, and Rachel are trying to move a couch up a flight of stairs and Ross keeps shouting, “pivot, pivot, pivot.” To which Chandler replies, “shut up, shut up, shut up!”
At the start of the lockdown, I watched as many of my colleagues (myself included) threw themselves into pivots. Many of them took their standard offerings and found new ways to deliver them virtually. And that worked well for a while until people got Zoom fatigue. Others shut down to “wait things out.” I tried this for a bit too. But as time dragged on, that got more and more stressful and disappointing. Some of us pivoted by dropping a few of our products or services and beefing up others, and achieved enough success to at least keep our doors open.
But I have another group of friends who’ve taken this opportunity to sort of blow up their businesses and move in totally new directions. These are the people who seem the most passionate and excited. You could argue that it’s risky to move away…
