Over the years author Steve Chandler has been a highly positive influence to many of us on the Microchip team. Steve's teachings around the concept of being Fearless were central to the first few years of my weekly message to the team.  Steve taught us all that our greatest challenge was overcoming the fear that exists in our own heads about things that may not even be real. We have learned how to become fearless with respect to serving our clients and being valuable to our families. The fearless journey continues.

In Steve's most recent book, Death Wish, he writes about the battle of addiction. Addiction to alcohol and drugs in particular. Steve paints a strong story of the battle itself and the hold that addiction to anything has on one's life. There are many things in his book that apply to life in the selling world. One is a poem by Fred Knipe called Snowfall.

It happened like a snowfall.
It came without a sound.
And when I looked the world had changed.
Everything was new.

This applies to our world, the world of sales and serving clients.  Massive, disruptive change has ironically crept up on us like a silent snowfall, and suddenly it seems that everything has changed overnight. While many people are locked in the past and stuck in the what, we have to recognize that the snow has fallen and shift to work in this changed new world.

There is a quote from Steve's book that is particularly compelling:

"The greatest addiction is familiarity.”

And that is what most of us are addicted to – doing things the way we have always done.

It’s so easy to be addicted to what we are comfortable with, but sticking with the status quo is not going to work in today's new paradigm. The great news is it is entirely possible to shift into a new way of doing things and break away from an addiction to the status quo.

Check out Steve's book, Death Wish, you will enjoy the very enlightening read.

Don’t get caught by the snow!