Embrace Evolution

Earlier this week, we celebrated Columbus Day. Of course, celebrated may be a difficult word to use here seeing as it is possible the holiday passed without you realizing it was occurring – at least until you went to get your mail and found nothing there.

We have reached a point where celebrating Christopher Columbus as an individual has become complicated enough where utter celebration of him seems misplaced. The rise of Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside this, though, is at least trying to help give a fuller view of what Columbus’s exploits meant.

It is impossible to come to some miraculous answer that everyone will agree is the correct way to celebrate this holiday and memorialize Columbus’s accomplishments while also acknowledging the pain it caused and the way that colonialism decimated native populations. I do believe, however, that we can largely agree upon the fact that there are two parts of this story that need to be told, and this was not always the case.

Granted, my school years are getting ever more distant in that rearview mirror, but it’s not SOOO long ago that what we were taught no longer has a hold in society. And the teaching we received was very much in the vein of canonizing Columbus and did not speak of indigenous peoples. We saved that for when they showed up for a giant Thanksgiving lovefest with the Pilgrims (gulp).

But it is good to learn new things. It is good to not think that when we have one answer it will be the only answer forever. The Columbus situation even shows that new things can be discovered in the past that we didn’t pay enough attention to. It is only a strength to be able to admit you were wrong and expand your vision to include more.

Embracing this ability for change is key in business, as well – just ask Kodak and Blockbuster. If you only ever do one thing, you must find a unique and super special type of niche to let that run for many years. But if you can move as times change and embrace that, new (and better) answers sometimes come along and with those you can thrive.

And this doesn’t mean you were necessarily “wrong” when the old answers helped you succeed. But the world would be really boring if it never changed, so don’t be afraid to change with it.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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