Losing

In sports, it is really clear who is winning, and who is losing.

Within games, you look at the scoreboard. Oh, look, the Mariners are losing 14-1 to the Rangers. That's not good.

Then you look at the standings (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) ... in soccer, you look at the table. Those who win the most are on top, those who lose the most are on the bottom. It's easy to see who is experiencing success.

If you want to advance your career, you probably have to do two things.

1. You probably have to go work for a company that is losing.
2. You probably have to fix that company, and help that company win (in an ethical manner, of course).

At least that's the way it happened to me ... I had to go from a winning company to a losing company ... had to fix my area ... then went from fixing a problem to going to a company that defined losing (Nordstrom.com), and had to play my part in fixing that problem.

Oh, sure, there's a club of folks who earn well-deserved upgrades ... going from Target to Uber or something like that. But far more often, a company that is losing games by the score of 14-1 is the company that comes calling. That's where your chops are tested.

Traditional Retail and Classic Catalogers are losing, for the most part. There are exceptions as always. But you look at the standings, and these companies are not winning. This means that there are Professional opportunities for you to go into these companies and FIX THEM!

A retail brand (in particular) is going to be run much more like a sports team in the future. The in-store experience is going to be more like a sports schedule ... with numerous events and opportunities to buy tickets to big events in-stores and experiences and thrills and all that kind of stuff. Wouldn't you want to be one of the people who fix the problem? Isn't that more fun than being an #omnichannel drone that the vendor community counts on to get paid?

There are going to be a TON of opportunities to fix retail and to fix cataloging in the next five years. Are you ready to implement your program, your way of doing things? Are you ready to see if your ideas can be implemented? Are you ready to see if you can lead people?

Or are you going to point at the scoreboard and mock those that are losing 14-1, or worse, just roll out the #omnichannel vendor playbook at their benefit?