Adaptability: A Matter of Life and Death - PT.ll

Resisting change has ruined a lot of lives and businesses. Indeed, when Karl Benz first developed the automobile, most people dismissed its potential, believing the horse and carriage would persist as the dominant mode of transportation indefinitely. Karl Benz patented the three-wheeled Motor Car, known as the "Motorwagen," in 1886.

Even contemporary, brilliant people can fall into the trap of resisting change. When Apple created the smartphone, the CEO of 'Blackberry', who was on top of the personal phone game at the time, resisted it. He said, “I don't believe in this. People will stick to the current format, and Apple will fail.” Blackberry never recovered.

We can flourish by embracing change. This resonates with my personal experience: When I was a teenager, I really wanted to become a professional basketball player, but I never got tall enough. One day I realized that it might be beneficial for me to embrace change and try to redirect this energy toward arts and music. Though the transition was agonizing, as I harbored a deep passion for basketball and was regarded as highly talented by my peers, I acknowledged the chasm between talent and professional success; sometimes the amount of work and determination you put in is not enough to bridge the gap. Sometimes it does make the difference, sometimes not. By focusing on art, I secured a high-paying actress job at the esteemed Brussels theater, La Monnaie, where I thrived for two years.

Following this successful experience, I channeled my resources and enthusiasm into music, capitalizing on the promising momentum. Today, I run a company specializing in PR for artists, Highertracks, which allows me to contribute to hundreds of people realizing their aspirations. I can't wait to start working every morning. I have also established a music label, "Thathard Magazine," which boasts tens of millions of streams across various platforms.

Undoubtedly, numerous athletes and artists can identify with this sentiment: at times, we must embrace change and cultivate alternative pursuits that align better with our capabilities. We always hear success stories in sports and art, but consider this: the likelihood of a student-athlete basketball player progressing from high school to a college team and ultimately being drafted by a major league team is akin to being struck by lightning, it is one chance in 15,300 or 0.00654% chance to be struck. According to the NBA's official records, over the past decade (2012-2022), there were an average of 41 NCAA basketball players drafted into the NBA each year, for a total of 410 players in the decade. According to the NCAA archives, there were over 540,000 high school student-basketball players in the 2018-2019 academic year alone. Assuming a similar number of players for the 2012-2022 period, there would be approximately 5.4 million high school student-basketball players. Dividing the number of NBA draftees by the total number of high school student-basketball players and multiplying by 100 gives us the percentage of high-school players who went all the way to be drafted into the NBA over the past decade: any given player has a 0.0075% random chance to make it. This means that for every 1,000,000 high school student-basketball players, only 75 were drafted into the NBA over the past decade. Those are staggering numbers.

However, it is crucial to put this in perspective, many will find amazing ways to build on perceived failures and succeed beyond expectations, such as Tim S. Grover, who went from failed athlete to legendary personal coach. He actually helped iconic basketball players such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to play at unprecedented levels. Others will bring an incredible amount of value through teaching, for instance, or in becoming professional sport advisers, some will excel in completely different fields.

Embracing a high degree of adaptability necessitates comfort in uncertainty, a quality that can be challenging for humans, who often fear the unknown. However, upon considerable reflection, I discern a certain allure in uncertainty. It provides space for astonishing surprises and remarkable evolutions. On the other end of the spectrum, routines and certainties are also fundamentally important; how should we behave then? We must learn to slide on this spectrum and see when we must adapt to change and when we should stick to current beliefs. Achieving this balance is an art, an artistic expression of our reactions to changes in the world and our environment. It is an art to balance what we know with what we should unlearn, and what we think we know with constructive questioning.

Here is one piece of advice that is counter to common wisdom: don't blindly trust your gut. When faced with uncertainty, our minds are prone to errors, and the primitive regions of our brain may dominate and misguide us, as elucidated by the esteemed psychologist and economy Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman in his extraordinary book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow." Instead, heed your intuition, but refrain from acting upon it impulsively. Contrast your feelings with cold, objective data analysis and additional research, employing reason and logic. Subsequently, take a step back to examine the overarching picture. Be bold and ask for opinions. Always be confident to ask.

Observing nature reveals its extraordinary capacity for adaptation; the ability of species to adjust is simply phenomenal. However, nature benefits from millions of years to refine itself, whereas we humans must adapt swiftly. Living in an era characterized by a rapidly accelerating pace of change, cultivating adaptability skills has become of paramount importance. It is equally valuable to remain receptive to the perspectives of individuals both younger and older than oneself. Every generation is bringing different things to the table, as explained in a book I highly recommend: The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendez-vous with Destiny," by William Strauss and Neil Howe.  People tend to think younger folks don't know anything yet, while the elders are obsolete, which can be a catastrophic mistake and lead to stagnation.

As a last observation, I also noticed that many intellectuals, scholars, and geniuses I like and respect ultimately concluded that change was the core, immutable law of the universe, from Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics to Leonardo Da Vinci, to Bruce Lee and Octavia Butler, among others. After many years of my own observations, I have also concluded that is accurate and hold adaptability in high regard. Let's excel at adaptability and prepare for change, anywhere and anytime, dear friends.

Thanks for your time, and if you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to read the original article that you can find on my website or on Medium (Adaptability:  A Matter of Life and Death.)

I have faith that these concepts will improve your life tremendously; we will rise together to live this life without limits.