Summary: Build for Tomorrow: An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career by Jason Feifer

Key Takeaways

• Change is often seen as a threat, a disruption, or a source of stress. But what if we could see change as an opportunity, a catalyst, or a source of inspiration? In this article, we will review a book that shows us how to do just that. It is a book that teaches us how to build for tomorrow, by embracing change, adapting fast, and future-proofing our career and life.
• If you are interested in learning more about how to turn change into your ally, and how to develop the skills and mindset that will help you succeed in any situation, we highly recommend that you read the book Build for Tomorrow: An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career by Jason Feifer. You will discover how to overcome your fears and doubts, how to find your purpose and passion, and how to create a vision and a plan for your future.

Build for Tomorrow (2022) is an action plan detailing how to navigate the four phases of change: Panic, Adaptation, New Normal, and Wouldn’t Go Back. It details stories of dramatic changes in the past that brought us the things we enjoy today, as well as lessons learned from various entrepreneurs who lived through monumental changes and emerged successful.

Introduction: Adapt to change quickly and successfully.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a monumental change for people around the world. You probably remember distinctly where you were when your government ordered a complete lockdown. And why wouldn’t you? That was a life-altering moment for each of us, and most people just wished they could go back to normal.

If you take the time to think about it, we’re faced with big changes like this all the time. They may not be as big as a global pandemic shutting the world down, but they can often be just as unsettling to our individual lives. Maybe your business idea didn’t pan out, or you need to move cities. Change can be intimidating and scary.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Your response to change can be something other than fear or panic. All it takes are a few techniques to help prepare you for the future. And that’s where this summary to Jason Feifer’s Build for Tomorrow comes in.

In this summary, we’ll outline the four phases of change: Panic, Adaptation, New Normal, and Wouldn’t Go Back. We’ll also cover the techniques necessary to navigate change so that you can be prepared to build the tomorrow you truly want.

Change creates panic when you’re scared of losing what you’re used to.

In a time when music was only performed live, John Philip Sousa was among the renowned names in the field. He composed the patriotic American march “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and the official US Marine Corps march “Semper Fidelis.” These, along with his many other masterpieces, catapulted him to fame.

But alas, his reign in the music industry was cut short by two technological advancements: the phonograph, which recorded and replayed music, and the radio, which broadcast music directly to people’s homes.

These devices were new back then and Sousa saw them as a threat. He believed that the phonograph and radio would change the world for the worse. People wouldn’t go to concerts anymore, no one would buy music sheets, and radio stations would stop calling musicians in to perform their songs live.

In short, Sousa panicked. He was thinking about everything he’d lose: his money, his career, and probably even his popularity. He was afraid of letting go of the good life he was so used to. So he fought the change. He actively proclaimed and wrote about how bad these new machines were and how they were destroying humanity.

We are, in many ways, a lot like Sousa. When faced with change, we often focus on all the good things we’re losing. Moving to a new city? We’ll lose our friends! Getting a job in a different field? We’ll lose our sense of identity! Living through a pandemic? We’ll lose face-to-face interactions!

It’s easy to identify the things we’ll lose when we’re facing a dramatic change. To make matters worse, we don’t stop at focusing on the loss – we tend to extrapolate it, too. We think that losing one thing will lead to losing another, even when we don’t have solid evidence to back it up. This leads to a full-blown panic, where we try to stop the change from happening but create big mistakes that hurt us in the process.

And, of course, you, most definitely, don’t want to be hurt. So how can you quell this panic? We’ll look at that in the next section.

To overcome panic, focus on what you’ll gain.

If we’re to overcome the Panic phase, we need to approach the change from an entirely different viewpoint. Rather than dwelling on the things we’d lose, we need to shift our focus on the things we’d gain and the opportunities that the change presents.

Let’s go back to Sousa. He was so concerned about the phonograph and radio taking his career away that he didn’t realize the endless possibilities these new devices could bring him. Yes, it’s true that when recorded music replaced live performances, it stripped many musicians of their jobs. But this same change also paved the way for other musicians to grow in popularity.

The phonograph and radio allowed musicians to finally play their music around the clock and in far-flung locations, something that they couldn’t do with live performances. After all, travel was pricey, and there were only so many hours in a day. But as their recordings were distributed across the globe, they were able to reach a wider audience and even make money while they slept!

The rise of the phonograph and radio also spurred the creation of new jobs for more people across the music industry. Recording studios were built, and roles like audio engineers, studio managers, DJs, and recording equipment manufacturers emerged. This seismic upheaval may have resulted in some losses, but it simultaneously led to a lot more gains.

And as for Sousa, he eventually discovered these gains as well. He calmed down when he eventually saw how he was still making money from the recordings, and he realized he wasn’t actually losing anything – instead, he was gaining a means of distribution!

That’s the secret to quelling your panic. You need to look at the change and see the gains instead of the losses. This won’t be easy to do every single time. Sometimes, it’s challenging to pinpoint exactly what you can gain from a new thing. But by simply believing that you will benefit from the change, even if you’re unsure what those benefits are, you can emerge from the panic and move on to the next phase: Adaptation.

Find your real purpose to help you adapt to change.

We’ve identified that panic comes from the fear of losing the things you’re used to, and in the process, you think you’ll also lose yourself. Imagine you’re working as a newspaper reporter, and then the industry starts dying. Now you have to find a job elsewhere. When you go through that career shift, the first thing you’ll probably feel is your identity getting shaken. If you’re no longer a newspaper reporter, what are you?

This is where you can pause and start to define your real purpose – your why. After getting past the panic and believing that there are bigger and brighter opportunities waiting for you, you now need to adapt to that change. Adapting to changes means determining what part of you changes and what doesn’t.

Let’s take Foodstirs as an example. In 2019, the three cofounders of this sweet baked goods company decided to rebrand and create a new product line: packaged goods like minidoughnuts and brownie bites. This could transform their company from becoming a producer of baking mixes only, to a producer of packaged goods too. They were naturally excited to launch at the beginning of 2020, but then, along came the COVID-19 outbreak. Everyone stopped buying baked goods and started buying baking mixes to entertain themselves while stuck at home.

The cofounders scrapped their launch. But what would this mean to their rebrand? That was when they remembered what their company was really all about. Their core mission wasn’t to sell packaged goods – it was to bring joy to people’s lives. And whether they sell baking mixes or packaged goods, they’re still fulfilling their mission just as they’d always planned to do.

That is exactly what your why is. It’s your foundation for doing things. The very core purpose that never changes no matter what shifts in life you go through. It’s an entirely different thing from your what, or the things that you do. Your what constantly changes depending on the resources and opportunities you’re presented with. To adapt to these changes, always keep your why in mind. That way, you won’t feel shaken and revert back to panic.

Adapt to change before you’re forced to.

Adapting to change doesn’t end after determining your core why. To successfully adjust to the change, you need to be the instigator of change. Yes, we’ve already established that change is scary and oftentimes painful, and nobody wants to go through that. You may think it’s foolish to initiate the change instead of sitting back and waiting for it to happen to you. But that was exactly how Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, won the long game.

Back in 2003, Calagione made a tasty India Pale Ale – or IPA – with 6 percent alcohol by volume. He called it the 60 Minute IPA. It was a hit. In fact, it was so well received that business owners from all across the country began calling his brewery to place orders for their liquor stores, bars, and restaurants. Three years later and the 60 Minute IPA was still selling out, almost reaching 70 to 80 percent of Dogfish’s sales.

Now, any other entrepreneur would have taken advantage of this and produced more, but not Calagione. Actually,, he wasn’t happy with these numbers at all. He was worried – and for good reason. He realized that with so many establishments carrying his 60 Minute IPA, people would think that his brewery was an IPA brand when in fact, he produces many types of equally tasty drinks.

Calagione didn’t want to be labeled as an IPA-only producer. Knowing the beer industry very well, he realized that, sooner or later, love for his 60 Minute IPA would fade. The public’s taste would change, and they’d move on to the next trendy beer. What would happen to his company, then? He’d be known as an IPA brand, a.k.a. “old.”

So before things got too out of hand, Calagione made the change himself. He decided to cap sales of 60 Minute IPA to only 50 percent. This led to a sea of hate comments and demands, but he remained firm. Instead of giving in and producing more of his best-selling drink, he offered customers his other beers. After all, they taste just as great as the 60 Minute IPA, if not better.

Calagione managed to convince people to try the full range of his beers, and this decision eventually paid off. Today, IPAs are no longer on the top of the pyramid, but Dogfish Head is still just as loved as before. It isn’t branded as an IPA producer, but as a brewery that’s always crafting something new. And that happened because Calagione initiated the change and didn’t wait for it to happen.

You can be brave enough to make the change first, too. That way, you’ll have more control and more time to adapt and get ready for the New Normal. You’re more in charge than you give yourself credit for.

Easily transition to the New Normal by bringing familiar elements of the past into the present.

So, you’ve gotten over the panic and have already adapted to the change. Now, you’re ready to navigate the third phase of change: the New Normal. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as it seems. You may have come to actually like the new changes because of the potential opportunities they offer, but your brain isn’t wired to simply let go of the past. You’ll probably feel nostalgic, and still want to have your old things despite getting acclimated to the new ones.

So how can you get past this issue? Build a Bridge of Familiarity. Take something from your old experience and add it to the new opportunity in front of you.

To truly appreciate how impactful the Bridge of Familiarity is, let’s go back to the early 1950s when fully automatic elevators were introduced. Before then, elevators needed an operator to work, and this posed some nuisance. The operators, like many other workers, left at 5 p.m., so if you missed that, you’d have to take the stairs. There were also times when the operator unions would go on strike and abandon their stations without warning, disrupting the flow of foot traffic in the building.

So, when fully automatic elevators were introduced, manufacturers anticipated a widespread consumer adoption of the product right away. After all, it eliminated the need for an operator, and you could take the elevator whenever you wanted!

But the response they got from the public was the complete opposite. Everyone was afraid of the unmanned magic box. They thought it was unsafe because there was no one to take over if something went wrong.

After learning more about the public’s concerns, the elevator manufacturers got to work. They decided to incorporate a female voiceover into the elevators to make announcements like “Going up” and “Going down.” Surprisingly, this and a few other marketing techniques did the trick. People began to embrace the automatic elevators, as the new voiceovers made them feel like a human was working behind the scenes. This was the Bridge of Familiarity the automatic elevators needed.

Transitioning to your New Normal is just a matter of finding your version of this bridge.

Identify what’s missing from your New Normal to reach your Wouldn’t Go Back moment.

You’re finally in the last phase of change. You’re living in the full-blown New Normal and are almost at the point where you wouldn’t even want to return to the way things were even if you could. You’re almost at your Wouldn’t Go Back moment.

But for some reason, you aren’t entirely at ease with the change. So what’s wrong?

It’s probably because of the 99-percent-there problem. You’re 99 percent there but still have that 1 percent to go. While small, that 1 percent can sometimes make the most significant difference to your journey. In fact, it may be the deciding factor that takes you from New Normal to Wouldn’t Go Back.

How can you identify that 1 percent so you can finally be complete? Jim McKelvey, the cofounder of technology conglomerate Square, knows exactly how.

Over a decade ago, McKelvey and his friend, Jack Dorsey, launched Square Reader, a tiny credit card reader for mobile devices like iPad and iPhones. This innovative product made it possible for small businesses with no expensive credit card machines to finally accept cards. It revolutionized the business industry and its competitors scrambled to create a knockoff of the Square Reader.

But most of them failed to do so because they thought that Square’s success lay simply in producing that tiny device when really it was because it addressed a host of other issues in the small business sector. The latter part was what their competitors failed to do. Sure, they managed to develop a knockoff of the Square Reader, but they didn’t build relationships with credit card companies or work to lower the cost of processing fees. They were 99 percent there but failed to consider the remaining 1 percent.

While in your New Normal, think about not only the gains your new experience offers but also what could be missing. Square’s competitors thought that its device made it big, but really it was the other things that put them on top. That’s what you have to look for – your “but really.”

For instance, you might have been promoted to a new and scary position, but really you’re set to learn more skills that can help you later in life. Now that you’ve identified your “but really,” you can work on it to finally get to your Wouldn’t Go Back moment.

Summary

You’ve just finished the summary to Build for Tomorrow, by Jason Feifer. The key message in this is that your life is ever-changing, and there’ll be plenty more changes to come. But the good news is that you can go through each change faster and braver now that you know the four phases of change. You won’t waste your time panicking and resisting the change. Instead, you can jump right to your Wouldn’t Go Back moment and seize the big opportunities that await you. And from there, building for your tomorrow will be as easy as pie.

About the author

Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, a startup advisor, host of the podcasts Build For Tomorrow and Problem Solvers, and has taught his techniques for adapting to change at companies including Pfizer, Microsoft, Chipotle, DraftKings, and Wix. He has worked as an editor at Fast Company, Men’s Health, and Boston magazine, and has written about business and technology for the Washington Post, Slate, Popular Mechanics, and others.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Part 1 Panic 13
1 You Come from the Future 17
2 Why We Keep Panicking 25
3 Extrapolate the Gain 40
4 Use Yesterday for What It Was, Not for What it Wasn’t 57
Part 2 Adaptation 73
5 What You Do, and Why You Do it 79
6 Widen Your Bands 89
7 Change Before You Must 101
8 Work Your Next Job 115
Part 3 New Normal 129
9 Treat Failure as Data 134
10 Build a Bridge of Familiarity 146
11 The Theory of Theories 159
12 What Is This For? 171
Part 4 Wouldn’t Go Back 189
13 Reconsider the Impossible 194
14 Get to the Second Time 211
15 The “99% There” Problem 221
16 Permission to Forget 230
Build Your Tomorrow 237
Acknowledgments 251
Index 255

Genres

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Career and Success, Business, Self Help, Science, Technology, Business Development, Business Processes and Infrastructure, Personal Transformation Self-Help

Review

The book is a guide to resilience, with stories and exercises about how to use the power of change to your advantage, drawn from centuries of innovations and the greatest minds of today. The author, Jason Feifer, is the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine and the host of the Build for Tomorrow podcast. He teaches readers how to navigate the four phases of change: Panic, Adaptation, New Normal, and Wouldn’t Go Back. He shows how to overcome the psychological barriers that prevent us from embracing change, and how to find opportunities in uncertain times. He also shares the lessons and strategies of successful entrepreneurs, celebrities, and changemakers who have thrived in the face of change, such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Maria Sharapova, and Elon Musk. The book is divided into three parts: Part One explains why change is inevitable and beneficial, Part Two reveals how to adapt to change and overcome resistance, and Part Three provides a framework for creating a future-proof career and life.

The book is an inspiring and practical resource for anyone who wants to learn how to cope with change and achieve their goals in a fast-changing world. The author writes with humor, clarity, and passion, and draws from a wide range of sources and examples to illustrate his points. The book is not a typical self-help book, but rather a collection of stories and insights that challenge the conventional wisdom and myths about change. The book is not only informative, but also entertaining and engaging, as the author uses anecdotes, quizzes, exercises, and questions to involve the reader and stimulate their thinking. The book is not meant to be read once and forgotten, but rather to be used as a reference and a tool for personal and professional growth.