Business Success is the Mother of
Reinvention
By Melanie Keveles
Imagine going to your local grocery store and having to ask the clerk
behind the counter to get your groceries for you! If it hadn�t been for
a man named Clarence Saunders, a grocery wholesaler from Memphis, Tennessee
who took a patent out in 1917 for what he called �Self-Serving Stores�
we all might have been at the mercy of store clerks who kept the goods
behind a counter. He thought it would save time and money to have the patrons
gather their own goods and bring them up to the front of the store where
clerks would ring up the purchases.
We generally take for granted the process of going to a grocery story
or department store and collecting what we want in our baskets and checking
out with the clerks, but if you�ve ever had occasion to visit a historic
restoration site such as Gettysburg or Old Sturbridge Village, you�ll see
general stores set up on the pre-1917 plan with long counters winding in
front of stacked shelves.
What is it with people like Saunders who see different possibilities
when the rest of us just take what is habitually handed to us for granted?
How do they see the value of change when many of us would argue for the
status quo?
Truth is all of us have the ability to look at our lives and our surroundings
and choose to see them differently than from what they are. We have to
be willing to stretch our imaginations and consider different possibilities.
Recently my husband and I vacationed in Lanesboro, a small town in the
southeast corner of Minnesota. The whole of "downtown" Lanesboro is on
the National Register of Historic Places. Yet as late as the mid-1980�s
the town was, dying and in general disrepair. What brought it back to life
was the opportunity presented when the state came in and paved asphalt
over an old railroad bed between Fountain and Money Creek Forestry Unit,
creating a 40-mile trail suitable for biking, hiking and in-line skating.
This brought tourists and outdoor enthusiasts en masse to enjoy the outdoors
and the surrounding area. It didn�t hurt that there was also a nearby water
body, called the Root River, providing opportunities for kayacking, canoeing
and tube gliding.
Interestingly enough, according to a guide who led us on a tour of the
nearby Amish community that arrived in the area nearly 40 years ago, Lanesboro
was the poorer of the surrounding towns in the years up to the trail being
paved over. Nearby towns like Preston had funds over the years to revamp
their old buildings with aluminum siding and demolish and build new structures.
But Lanesboro, lacking such funds had only a stock of aging buildings,
dating to the turn of the century and earlier.
Yet because Lanesboro homes and businesses were so old, they were ideal
for reinvention into historic bed and breakfasts and unique shops. Today
there are more than 14 such homesteads, serving the needs of the upscale
tourists, heading for this vacation spot, 45 minutes from Rochester, Minnesota
and about two hours from the Twin Cities. Lanesboro has become the mecca
for the area, while the earlier prosperous surrounding towns have become
only mild side attractions to visitors to the trail and its environs. Lanesboro
has reinvented itself especially because of its uniquely historic standing
buildings that were fortunately spared the wrecking ball for lack of earlier
funds! How ironic!
How are these stories of invention and reinvention instructive to people
considering career change? They both are tales of seeing possibilities
others may not see.
Often I find myself correcting those who tell me that they are �unemployed�
by reminding them that they are in the process of becoming �re-employed.�
This may sound like semantics, but there is more to it than that. People
who see themselves as unemployed often don�t see the possibilities around
them for reinventing themselves. They may pass up unusual opportunities,
thinking they can only replicate what they were involved in prior to losing
their job. Yet the more they are willing to consider new ways to reinvent
themselves, the more opportunities become available.
While in Lanesboro we met the proprietor of a lovely motel called the
Green Gables Inn. She has enjoyed building up this business over the course
of the last ten years. Her move to hotel proprietorship was a career reinvention
for her, seemingly a renaissance soul who enjoys finding new ways to exploit
her talents. Prior to taking over the Green Gables, she had toured the
country, staying in bed and breakfasts throughout the United States to
gather ideas for her own establishment. She credits the success of her
business today in part to her having taken the time to gather this research
and incorporate the best of what she found on her travels.
If you or someone you know is at the point of inventing or reinventing
themselves, out of choice or necessity, I hope that you will use these
examples to inspire yourself to open your eyes and consider the possibilities
around you. Here are some questions that can spur you on:
-
What is something you find yourself perpetually saying, �I wish someone
would to take care of this situation� that begs being taken care of? (This
is an unmet need just waiting to be addressed.)
-
How would an outsider, someone with fresh eyes, view this situation? (What
is something you�re missing in this picture?)
-
What have I enjoyed doing or seeing in other parts of the country or the
world that could be transplanted here? (This is what the owner of Starbucks
discovered when he transplanted the Italian coffee bar to the United States
� the rest is history!)
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