The Comfort Zone Dilemma
Geoff Nicholson
One of the many challenges for anyone in the fashion industry is the constant struggle to remain relevant to our customers. Just like every rock band has their day in the lime light, so to do all of us in any industry that deals directly with the public, which is basically all of us. The question is, how long do we have until our proverbial lime light starts to dim? When things seem nice and easy, and everything we do is right on point with our industry and customer base, BE CAREFUL, you are now entering the COMFORT ZONE DILEMMA. This is when we start to Jedi mind trick ourselves into believing that maybe we don't need to work as hard to create greatness and all we need to do is continue on with the same old thing, over and over again and our customers will still love us. This is where the DILEMMA begins. This false sense of comfort, is the exact opposite of what we really need to move forward. In fact, when you think about it, it is the feeling of DISCOMFORT that has led to far more greatness in the world than comfort ever has. For example, I think it's pretty safe to say that air conditioners and heaters were created out of DISCOMFORT, not comfort.
I mention all of this only as a simple reminder (especially to myself), that we are only as good as our last collection, sale etc... Our goal every season, or in life in general, should be to search for and embrace DISCOMFORT and to ALWAYS be wary of THE COMFORT ZONE DILEMMA.