Old Patterns Can Hurt Your Business
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Old Patterns Can Hurt Your Business

When I was in high school, I took Home EC classes. Part of the curriculum focused on cooking and part on sewing. We were required to make samples, and everyone really hated this homework.

Each sample began was a small piece of red Muslim that was cut into a four-inch by four-inch square. There were a number of sewing skills that had to be demonstrated on the squares. One might be a buttonhole. Another could be blind hemming. A third would be a pocket placket. When the samples were finished, they were glued into a scrapbook and submitted to the teacher who graded them based on the proficiency in which they were made.

We were also required to learn how to sew using a pattern. We had to learn about all the symbols on the tissue paper that would be altered to fit the individual and then placed on material for cutting.

The whole idea of sewing is to learn how to do something well and then do it over and over again.

Patterns allow you to do things in the same way over and over again.

Well, even though this was the way of the past, the whole world of sewing has changed significantly. Machines now can do so much more than the ones we had. Fashions have changed and I don't think there are as many people who sew their own clothes as in the past.

Everything in life can become a pattern - something that we do in the same way over and over again. But not all patterns are healthy and, in fact, some patterns can hurt your business.

Think about the patterns that were used in the past for hiring. Practices allowed men to be paid more for doing the same job as women merely because of gender. In some countries, bribes were (and still are) acceptable means of circumventing the justice system. Abuse was ignored and ethic jokes were allowed.

It is very important that each person examines their own life on a regular basis to determine if there are old patterns that are causing a mental block that might, in fact, be hurting business development.

Even old patterns at a personal level that involve drug or alcohol abuse, financial recklessness or disrespectful behavior towards others can have a powerfully negative impact on the things that you are trying to build.

Be very careful. Some of the old patterns that you thought were acceptable might actually be hurting you and your business.

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