Business, as in life, is always in flux. Change is constant. How we respond to change defines our outcomes–our results.

Many entrepreneurs fail to actively look for the changes taking place around them–it’s more comfortable to maintain the status quo.

In “Managing in the Next Society”, Peter Drucker tackles the topic from a different perspective. Most of us shy away from change or hope that things stay just as they are. Drucker encourages entrepreneurs to actually search for change, evaluate it carefully, and respond effectively.

Here’s what this great business leader had to say on the topic of change in a segment he entitled, “Searching for Change”:

“A change is something people do; a fad is something people talk about. Smart entrepreneurs see change as the norm and as healthy. The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.

Look at every change taking place around you, look out every window. And ask, ‘Could this be an opportunity?’ ‘Is this a genuine change or simply a fad?’ The difference is very simple: A change is something people do, and a fad is something people talk about. An enormous amount of talk is a fad. You must also ask yourself if these transitions, these changes, are an opportunity or a threat. If you start out by looking at change as a threat, you will never innovate. Don’t dismiss something because this is not what you had planned. The unexpected is often the best source of innovation.”

I’m trying to heed Peter Drucker’s advice. I’d encourage you to do the same.

Drucker continues on the topic with the following advice, “Take a half an hour to discuss with a colleague the changes sweeping your industry and identify the biggest genuine changes. Ignore the fads; figure out how to capitalize on the genuine changes.”

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Building a business is tough. It requires great determination and self-confidence. But there are unseen dangers lurking within both of those necessary ingredients.

Pride, arrogance, and stubbornness often become the siblings of determination and self-confidence.

In 1999 one of the founders of Webvan confidently faced reporters, answering questions about the company’s sweeping vision of home grocery delivery. The company had recently raised a staggering $375 million in an IPO and was valued at over $1 billion. He explained how they would continue to assemble a gigantic infrastructure spanning the U.S.

When reporters began to question “profitability” and “proof of concept”, asking pointed questions about exactly how they planned to ensure that the business would be a success, the founder chastised, “…what you have to understand, is that we are very, very smart…” This was a supreme example of pride, arrogance and stubbornness.

Webvan expanded from the San Francisco Bay area to eight U.S. cities and initiated a $1 billion network of high-tech warehouses. But considering the super-thin margins of the grocery industry, a lack of user adoption or demand, and rabid spending, the company failed to complete it’s proposed 26 city expansion. It closed in 2001, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars, putting over 2,000 people out of work and dashing the hopes of thousands of shareholders.

As an entrepreneur, it is vital that you learn to balance determination and self-confidence with a healthy dose of humility and openness. Some of the best direction insight, you will uncover along the way will be the unexpected advice and feedback that will be provided from potential customers, investors, employees, vendors, or friends. Sometimes these are tough facts to face. It’s this advice that might force a change of plan or a painful course correction. But it’s that sort of insight that ultimately makes your business thrive.

Peter Drucker put it this way, “The greatest danger for the new venture is to “know better” than the customer what the product or service is or should be, how it should be bought, and what it should be used for…the new venture needs to be willing to see the unexpected as an opportunity rather than an affront to its expertise.”

Check out this great post for more information about this topic:

Success Starts With Humility