There’s No Shortcut To Staying Relevant

The world is changing. Now wait a minute. Take it easy. I didn’t say the sky is falling, I said the world is changing. And that, by the way, is nothing new. It is however changing at a lightning-fast pace. It’s the digital revolution brothers and sisters. Social media, technology, traditional media, and communication are different today than they were just yesterday. Imagine what tomorrow will bring.

I read something the other day that said, “Anything that can go digital ultimately will.” Wow. Probably right. On Christmas Day 2011, 7-Million new mobile devices were activated (more than twice as many as last Christmas Day).

In the world of traditional media that I spend my days in (radio, TV, newspaper), we are trying to change with the game. Some are doing it better than others. Those who are not thinking about it are already obsolete, although they probably don’t know it yet.

There’s a lot of talk about staying relevant. The question is a good one to ask regardless of the business that you’re in, and a good one to be asking all the time. There are meetings, seminars, conferences, books; all about how to “stay relevant.” We could all 'meeting' ourselves right into the ground (all the time becoming less relevant because were spending too much time meeting, and not enough time doing.)

Regardless of where you work, what industry you’re in, what level you are at; there is a whole heap of truth in a post that I came across on Twitter yesterday. And it said, "Want to remain relevant? Work your ass off.”

I loved it. I laughed hard. Then I got to work.

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