Making Lemonade Out of Lemons
When I was growing up, my mom would take a lemon every single day. She would squeeze it with a hand juicer. She would add a little bit of water and a little bit of sugar. Although it came from one of the most sour fruits that exist, it would make one of the most amazing drinks of all time.
Some of our circumstances are sour. How can you add a little bit of water and a little bit of sugar to make your circumstance one of the greatest things that has ever happened to you?
“Challenges are opportunities to create innovative solutions.”
Add a little bit of “water”: innovation.
Innovation is the action or process of innovating. The definition is so simple and elementary. Your business and relationships must embrace innovation to have the ability to grow. Challenges are opportunities to create innovative solutions.
My wife told me that the birthplace of all creativity is restriction. When you get restricted and you have parameters, you have to dive into your ingenuity to be able to get through it. Are you looking for ways to innovate in your business each and every day? Are you inviting your team to do the same?
When you give your team the freedom to make mistakes (every single day if they want to, as long as they write them down and make them better), you give freedom to the organization to try things; to innovate. And when they try it and it works out, then you write it down and you systemize it. If it sucks, guess what you do? You don’t do it anymore.
Add a little bit of “sugar”: adaptability.
Adaptability is being able to adjust to new conditions. The ability to adapt is one of the most important things in business. Each time that you adapt and move through something quickly, you’ll have more ability the next time to be able to adapt even quicker.
Adaptability can take away your ego. When you have people around you that can quickly adapt, your ego will be kept in check. In the salon industry, I work around a lot of young adults. They are doing at 21 years old what took me ‘til I was 35 to do. This absolutely crushes my ego; if I do not have the ability to adapt immediately, I will be surpassed by them. Keep your ego in check: try adapting to the circumstances around you.
So think about it, when you grasp ahold of something right off the bat, a lot of times you get a higher reward. The price could be lower if you wait, but the value of your investment may not have as much upside. If you wait, thinking “Oh wow, I don’t want to get in on it because it’s so expensive,” “It’s going to take a lot of time,” “It’s going to take a lot of energy,” the value of your investment might not have as much upside. The higher risk, the higher reward.
If you have the innovation and the adaptability to take any circumstance and have a love affair with it, that’s when magic will happen. Turn your “lemons” in life to lemonade. You may create a bit of sweet success!
Kelly Cardenas
KELLY CARDENAS is an industry icon, author, international educator for John Paul Mitchell Systems, Business Coach, Salon Owner, husband and Father. He attributes the success of his namesake salons, located in Las Vegas, Chicago, and Carlsbad, to the team that has been constructed around him. Cardenas’ concept of integrity based success has conditioned his team of trend-setting stylists to reach exponential heights as salons as well as individual beauty professionals.