I was back in the Bay Area this weekend, near where I grew up, in order to keynote the California-Nevada-Hawaii District Key Club Convention at the Santa Clara Convention Center. On my way over to present some workshops on Saturday morning, I stopped by a Starbucks near my parents’ house to grab some breakfast.
The Starbucks was right by my favorite high school job site: Blockbuster Video.
My brother had worked at the Blockbuster in Princeton Plaza for quite some time and I was already known by the management when I applied during my junior year of high school. I started work soon after my 17th birthday and continued working until right before I was elected Key Club Governor. It was only a few months, but I really liked every moment of it. I’ve always been a big fan of movies, and I loved the chance to help others find that perfect movie for a date night, a party with friends, or just to kick back and relax. I loved the perks of five free rentals a week for employees and rented from a variety of genres to allow me the chance to better serve customers. I even enjoyed the in-store promotional videos, reciting all the lines for Independence Day with my co-workers. To this day, I remember my Blockbuster employee account. Honestly, if the travel as Key Club Governor wasn’t as intense as it was back then, I would have kept doing the job.
But I stopped doing the job.
And eventually, I even cancelled my Blockbuster account, switching first to Netflix, and now to basically the iTunes store.
I wasn’t the only one. Blockbuster’s profits declined, and stores were closed.
On Saturday, I saw my store…
…closing.
When I was in high school, this place was packed. It was popular. Lines could go around the store on a Saturday night as people made their entertainment plans.
But preferences changed, and Blockbuster didn’t quite keep up.
Even the places that innovated before Blockbuster, like Netflix, are now struggling with a fickle customer base.
What does this mean?
Just because we’ve had success in the past does not mean that success will be permanent. We must continue to innovate. We must continue to serve. We must continue to connect and relate with our audience.
If we don’t, we will be shutdown because our audience will leave us.
So let’s celebrate our success, but let’s not get too comfortable.
It’s a long journey and we want to stay on the path for a long time : )
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