In 2025, have we lost sight of what this whole “business” thing is all about?
Forty years ago, we didn’t have likes or followers or such public visibility to be concerned about.
The priority used to be to find an existing idea that was tried-and-tested (not to ‘change the world’ or ‘build a unicorn’), make it happen. Direct sales. Reputation. Consistency.
The focus was on ‘serving the customer’, and now ‘how do I look?”
Today, we have everyone to compare ourselves to.
Professor and economist Richard Layard refers to this in one of this books as the “keeping up with the Joneses effect”.
Back in the day, we used to compare ourselves with our neighbours on our street or in our village… these days, we have thousands of others to compare ourselves to at any one.
I’d like to take a leaf out of the book called “The Old Way of Doing Things”.
I believe that, when it boils down to it, doing business hasn’t really changed that much.
It’s easy to complicate things and get sucked into the allure of doing stuff that isn’t important, or barely moves the needle.
The focus should be getting out there and getting your hands dirty and having conversations with customers ~ not on generating likes and followers.
