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Burning Down The House: The Power Of Starting Over

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This article is more than 9 years old.

Forbes magazine was founded in 1917 by B.C Forbes (grandfather of Forbes' current editor-in-chief), as the first business magazine in the US. Now, not quite 100 years later, comes the first app-only business magazine, Switched On Leadership.

I first heard about Switched On Leadership just last month when Christele Canard, the publisher, reached out to ask my permission to republish one of my Forbes posts for her latest issue. As I wandered around on their website, I realized that, at their launch in December of 2013 on the Apple newsstand, this was - as far as I've been able to determine - the very first business magazine available only as an app (at the moment, just in iOS, but they're working on agreements with Android).

It's fascinating to see the first "native" version of anything.  When any major change in technology or culture happens, the first forays into the new are always simply updated versions of the old. Almost all of today's "online magazines," for instance, are generally tabletized versions of their print counterparts, and are in same ways unsatisfying hybrids of both mediums. Switched On didn't start out as something else; it's made for reading on your iPad or iPhone, so it's based on the rules of that medium.  It definitely has a few bugs to be worked out - but it's the first of a new breed.

It seems to me that there are two ways to do a completely new thing. One is by starting completely fresh, as Christele and the folks at Switched On Leadership have done. The other is to trash your assumptions about what's possible and what will work in your existing endeavor and start a new aspect of that endeavor from a fresh set of assumptions.  One great example of this - not to be too self-referential, but it happens to be true - is Forbes.com's blogging platform. In August of 2010, Forbes did a soft-launch of a blogging platform that had been designed a few years earlier by a start-up.  Forbes bought the company and hired its CEO, Lewis DVorkin, to run the new platform, and to design the rules around its use.

I was very fortunate to become one of the earlier bloggers at Forbes (I started in December of 2010), and I was amazed at the freedom I was given.  There were very few rules and no external editing; each blogger was responsible for editing his or her own pieces. The premise was that if you wrote good stuff, as much or as little as you wanted, people would read it, and you would build a following in your area of expertise. If you wrote bad stuff, either no one would read it, and you'd fade away, or, if it was truly bad, you'd be dis-invited from blogging. within those parameters, you could write what appealed to you, and it would be put up for people to view immediately. Forbes provided lots of stats about how many uniques and pages views you were getting and how many people were following you, so that if you wanted to, you could use the feedback you were getting to hone your posts to be more engaging to your targeted audience.

However, because it was my only real experience of blogging for a magazine entity,  it wasn't until I saw what it could have been that I realized just how much the Forbes approach was truly grounded in the social media capability and mindset, vs the old magazine assumptions.  A few years ago, Fortune invited me to come and blog for them instead. As I listened to their idea of blogging, it sounded exactly like being a contributor to a print magazine (without the pay): editorial oversight of topics; a weeks-long review and revision process; little or no data for the contributors about how their posts were doing; a maximum of one post a month (at Forbes, I have often blogged 2-3 times a week). I suddenly realized that their blogging platform must have evolved directly from the magazine, without the necessary burn-it-down-and-start-over approach Forbes has taken.

So What?

As I've been thinking about this, I realize it's an important principle for each of us as individuals, as well.  If you want to do something new - a new relationship, a new job, a new part of your business, living in a new place - and you don't want the new thing to be unnecessarily  bound by the restrictions and constraints of the previous thing, it may be that you really need to really burn it down and start over.  Here are two things you can do to make that happen:

 Find people who are native to the new: Forbes with Lewis DVorkin and his team is a great example of this. If you want to start a new product line or division in your business, and you want to make sure it's not unduly constrained by current reality in the rest of your business, and that it  takes full advantage of new technology, a new market, or new consumer needs, make sure you have at least one key person on the team who's not a long-time member of your enterprise.  It really makes a difference having at least one internal influencer who's not in the process of trying - like you are - to break out of the old.

This principle may seem superfluous if the new thing you're contemplating is a relationship or a job - those will, by definition, be with people who weren't part of your old enterprise.  But if those people are mentally and emotionally in the same place as the folks you're moving away from, it may be equally hard to build something fresh. When I met my now-husband, six years ago, I realized that he was different from anyone I'd ever been with in important ways -- ways that were what I wanted in a new relationship.  He was completely willing to be happy; very hopeful about the future; self-sufficient without being aloof. He was a 'carrier of the new' in a way that has allowed us to build a relationship different than any I've ever had.

Burn down your assumptions: You can also  change how you think and talk to yourself about the new enterprise, in a way that can be quite liberating.  For instance, I noticed, when I was talking to the woman from Fortune, that she often began her sentences with a built-in constraint.  "We don't allow our contributors to...", "We have to maintain our..." ,"We aren't considering..."

What she said seemed important to me, because what we say arises from what we think. I suspect her assumptions were equally constrained.  If you're approaching a new enterprise full of assumptions that limit the possibilities - you'll get stuck in the old.  Listen to what you're saying to yourself, and try to change your limiting assumptions to questions.  That will open up your thinking and help you start to get curious. For example, I was talking to a guy recently who makes great money as a day trader, but hates what he does, and really wants to change his job path. However, when he talked about his dilemma, he said, "There's no way I could start a new career; I haven't had a real corporate job in over a decade." I encouraged him simply to shift that assertion into a question, "I wonder how I could start a new career, given that I haven't had a real corporate job in over a decade?"  Taking a match to his old assumption, and creating the space for new possibilities.

So, no actual pyromania required - but if you really want to start fresh, you need to metaphorically torch your old habits and assumptions, in order for the new to flourish.

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