Where Change Leads You

The process can be painful, but the goal is profound: Find something new that you’d never want to lose.

- By Jason Feifer

I believe we experience change in four phases: panic, adaptation, new normal, and “wouldn’t go back.”

The first three are about being forced to make changes we wouldn’t have previously considered. That last phrase is when we realize how valuable these changes were. We start to say, “I wouldn’t want to go back to the way it was before.”

As I’ve talked to entrepreneurs over the past year and a half, I’ve heard many “wouldn’t go back” stories. People found new opportunities and embraced new experiences. They reconsidered what they once believed was impossible. This is a powerful process but also a humbling one.

I’m learning that for myself right now.

Some background: My wife and I live with our two little boys in a small apartment in Brooklyn. But last March, as the pandemic raged in New York, my parents urged us to move in with them in Boulder, Colo. They had more space, and we agreed a break could be good.