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Intro

Hi, and welcome to Decoding AQ, helping you to learn the tools, mindsets, and actions to thrive in an ever-changing world.

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Ross  

Hi, Dan. So thank you very grateful for your time. I wondered if you could just explain a little bit more about your view of what adaptability means to you?

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Dan  

Yeah, well, it's really interesting. First of all, my childhood, up until about age 11, was on a farm that actually failed. And there were, we had seven children and failed. And so I've noticed that it took me about a year to make the jump from farm life into a small town. And I went through a lot of hardship with it. But I began to realize, after that particular experience that if I wanted to go anywhere in life away from the small town that I was in, away from my family, I was really going to have to get good at doing that. And essentially, this is now 60 years later and I'm incredibly more adaptable, approaching 75 than I was when I was 15. And it seems to me that we now live in a world where that's the central skill.

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Ross

Interesting.

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Dan

It doesn't matter circumstances, there's going to be adjustments that need to be made, there's going to be surprises that catch you, they sort of blindside you, and that's going to be kind of normal. And therefore the most essential skill is that you recover very, very quickly. And then you land on your feet, and without a loss of confidence and without a loss of optimism about the future. So I think that this whole topic that you're zeroing in on with adaptability seems to me the central, the most necessary skill for not just the world that I live of entrepreneurialism, but really for the planet itself.

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Ross  

I find it interesting, because when I talk to people about it, and they say, “Well, we've been changing all the time,” which is true. But I think what's interesting now is the convergence and acceleration of change that's now bubbled it up to being even more important, as you describe it a central skill. But I think what's lacking is, how do we actually measure it and then really put some investment in our time or thinking to improve it? And there's got to be a value to be to that and the other side. Where might you see a value in your community in understanding adaptability better, and then giving it some love, giving it some attention?

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Dan  

Well, specifically the Strategic Coach is just focused on very highly successful entrepreneurs, these are individuals who are not just starting their business, these are individuals who are really well established. And they've gotten to levels of success that are probably even beyond what they thought when they first became an entrepreneur. And now the question is, do they have the adaptability to create as big a jump in front of them as they've already completed, and do that with a sense of enthusiasm, a sense of excitement, but also really being sure of the skills that they now need, and then all the other skills they need. And so it's just a prime example. Because my experience is that most entrepreneurs have an initial set of success. And it matches their goals, and they get payoffs for it, they get a good lifestyle out of it. they have economic resources, that are really, really great.

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But then the world has changed. And they're now faced with a new world. And they say, “Well, I'm not up to this new world. I'm not up to this new world.” And what's lacking there is an adaptability skills. Okay, and there's a lot of things that feed into this. But first of all, you have to recognize centrally that from now on in the rest of my entrepreneurial career, the number one skill I'm going to work on is my own personal adaptability. And then I'm going to communicate this outwards to all my team members, my family. I'm going to communicate it to my family, my customers and clients, I'm going to communicate that. So I think it's, it's kind of like it's the language of change. The language was successful, transformative change is really what it's all about.

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Ross  

And I think just to finish, for me personally, coming into coach and working with you that privilege to help me adapt through change, adapting who I am to myself, my own identity as I've gone through lots of change, but do so in a transformative and positive way is really important, and that it affects others in a rising tide, as opposed to, “I've transformed, I'm great, but I've left carnage behind.” And I think that's central to the adaptability we need now in the world, is not just about one surviving but about humanity surviving. And if we focus on that, in whichever level you're in, we can ensure a better way of change. One that doesn't end in depression or negative impact, but we can help people transition through that I think it's really important. 

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Dan  

Yeah. And I just wanted to say, one more thing here. There's actually a very interesting technological metaphor for adaptability. And my father during the Second World War was exempted from military service because he had four children and that qualified as exemption from military service. And he was older so and, but he worked in a factory that made gyroscopes, okay. And gyroscopes were advanced very, very quickly, in the middle of the 20th century, because they were needed for the fighters and the bombers. And so that these planes would get buffeted by winds, they would get harassed by other planes that wanted to shoot them down, they would be hit by explosions and everything else.

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And the gyroscope immediately helped the pilot, right the plane and return to course. And my feeling is that that's exactly what the adaptability skill is for each individual. No matter how you're buffeted no matter how you're blocked, it returns you back to a straight course, that you had already pre-determined and so you have this ability. It's almost like an extraordinarily balancing skill to respond but then immediately get back to where you wanted to go in the first place.

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Ross  

I like that. I like that. Thank you very much. And I enjoy a time with you and I look forward to the next 25 years together.

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Dan  

Thank you. Thank you.

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Voiceover  

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Outro

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