A while ago I heard someone make this statement, “you need to let go in order to grab on.” At first it didn’t make much sense, but as I considered it I realized the profundity.
The statement means that sometimes risk is required, sometimes we have something so-so but to move to something better we need to let go of it first.
As one is in pursuit of 100% customer satisfaction, there might be areas that need to be scraped. Of vision that needs to be changed of focused. Often change of a radical nature is required (like restructuring organizational hierarchy or requiring everyone in a company to spend at least some time to phone support). It might seem major, but maybe just what your organization needs to make it to the next level is to let go of some of your current practices.
Obviously one cannot rashly abandon successful ventures constantly in pursuit of becoming the next YouTube or Facebook, but this is a lesson that must be learned and embraced to be a successful entrepreneur or capitalist.
Here’s a simple example that I’ve heard: monkey bars. You remember climbing them when you were a kid—they’re quite difficult.
First you set your hands firmly around the first rung, and then step off and hang by just your arms. And then in order to grab on to the next rung—the next level of success—you need to let go of the current bar with one of your hands.
Applied to business: customer experience is super important, so when the feedback from your customers demands something more, don’t be rash but be willing to take some risk to achieve a new level of customer satisfaction…Sometimes you need to let go in order to grab on.