I’ve lived in Chicago many years. And anyone who’s ever worked in the Loop (that’s the downtown area) is familiar with the guys running around in the brightly colored sport coats. You see them on the street every week day, impervious to hot, cold and rain, usually (it seemed) with a cigarette. These were the floor traders from the Board of Trade. "Heart attack job," most of us would think, and say to our colleagues, as we watched these runners dealing with customers and their orders.
But these folks are disappearing quickly. Computer trading has practically replaced the pits for a preponderence of trading volume. And the rug was pulled out from under people who practiced what was a very skilled, but very limited, occupation. What do you do when you have a highly specialized Success Formula and suddenly there’s no need for it?
You can read about what some of these former traders are now doing here. Market Challenges don’t just affect companies and industries. Technology and new competitors don’t just hit businesses. Individuals, and their personal Success Formulas are impacted by Challenges as well. And when that happens, what’s critical is that we use personal Disruptions to find White Space for our future.
Very few of these old traders have turned into "screen traders." The skills for success are very different trading on a computer versus a pit. And for most of these people, their identity was tied to more than a title – it was tied to the strategies and tactics used in the activity of being a pit trader. Their Success Formula suddenly had a lot less value. For some, this signaled retirement – the personal equivalent of shutting down operations. Others have taken up screen trading, but at far lower volumes and with less satisfaction (monetarily and personally.) They are trying to find a way to Defend & Extend their old Success Formula – but it isn’t going too well (as we might expect). And others have Disrupted themselves and moved on to roles as salespeople and restauranteurs. It’s this latter group that is now finding the most fulfillment in their lives, because they have moved themselves into personal White Space and are developing a new Success Formula.
It’s personally rough when your Success Formula needs changing. But we are no more immune to the impacts of a dynamic world, and the affect it has on labor, than are businesses. Succeeding in this dynamic world increasingly requires that we keep our eyes scanning for Challenges, that we practice Disrupting our lives to make sure we don’t become too "comfortable and cozy," and finding ways to insert White Space in our lives. Places to experiment with new ideas that we can potentially use to keep our careers, and lives, in our control and flourishing – instead of waking up wondering "Where’s the Rug"?
When was the last time you took a college class? The last time you explored how to turn your hobby into a job? Interviewed someone who walked away from a job to something totally different for insights on how she did it? Discussed with your spouse squirreling away significant funds as "walk away money"? Checked on the value of your house not to get more spending money, but to finance a career change? Attended a networking meeting not looking for a job, but just to hear about what other people do? Where’s the White Space in your life?