With a new year comes new excitement. I know I’m not the only one who stayed up late to milk the excitement and toast the possibilities with friends on Dec. 31. I love the clean sheets feel of a new year. What will be possible this time? There is room to dream in this fresh territory. I know many people make resolutions, and I love to make plans. I think of how I’d like to fill the year with adventures and accomplishments. How will this year be different? How will I be different? What experiences can I recreate? What episodes will I try to avoid?

If I’m honest, last year, the new year was tough to face. And two years ago, in 2019, I wasn’t even the same person. It wasn’t that long ago, but back then, I could still reach the steering wheel of my life. Do you know what I mean? The coronavirus knocked everything loose, and I didn’t know what plans to make. I was too distracted by finding hand sanitizer and hoarding toilet paper to get clear on my plans for the future. My focus became very narrow and the horizons shrunk from years to hours. Put that into the list of experiences I don’t want to repeat.

I am going to pull my attention away from the unpleasant experiences and get some optimism. Last month I picked up Grant Cardone’s “The 10x Rule.” I wanted this book to inspire my new year’s plans. A bunch of my business friends were reading it, and I wanted to know what it was about. 

Grant Cardone has got a message for his readers. It’s baked in the title: Go big. And then go 10 times bigger than that. The theory is unless the goal is as big as possible at the beginning, it’s going to be too small before you get to the end. Cardone challenges me to dream at levels previously unimaginable.

Okay, Cardone. I know you are big deal when your book is at the front of all the airport bookstores. But my imagination has hit a wall of reality. Business has changed. The last two years of the pandemic have been a jagged pill to swallow. Companies scrambled and tried to re-sort their priorities and keep some momentum in the midst of this disruption.

So many people were running scared. Fear does not make for good business. I watched as companies laid off cohorts of people — including me, more than once. Other companies took out advertisements for their services. I noted the ones that faced these challenging times with optimism and which ones were shedding talent. Even in my small industry, there were a wide variety of responses.

But this seems to be a good time for Cardone’s message. There is actual historic data about what the customers want and we can make some forecasts. There are a lot of things we don’t know but there is still a lot we’ve learned. Things are changing. Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign, had a compelling argument in his “How the AV Industry is getting smaller (And why that’s a good thing)” column. It was a sober look at a familiar landscape, but an optimistic one too: “The pandemic highlighted how important reliable, robust AV networks are to organizations, and consequently, they now demand more from their AV infrastructure. Organizations today have higher expectations, and they’re gravitating to technical partners with the ability to support them at scale.” 

He points out that our industry is shrinking, but that means we can focus more tightly on giving good service to our customers. Like a tree that is getting pruned, we can focus on our strengths. There is room for growth, and it is time. Everyone has been through a lot. I’m still keeping track of who has landed were in these layoffs, mergers and closures. It’s tough for customers too. I have so much compassion for everyone, and I know we have a lot of appreciate and love to share for all that we have gone through together.

I’ve been through a lot with my AV colleagues. Big projects, acquisitions, mergers, customer communications and company growth. I know what we are capable of at our best. I am looking forward to 2022 showcasing the world class players I believe in. This is a good time to be the best I can be. Opportunities are here and now, I know it.

It is time to take action. Like Cardone says, we can keep dreaming and dream big. It is a mistake to set my sight too low. I didn’t get this far by playing small. Hastings isn’t the only one that’s excited about what lies ahead. I am ready to stretch again and make things happen.

Taking that step. It might be the first one or the next one. Take it and don’t stop. I’m lifting my head up to see a larger horizon. I’m ready to shed the fear and go for it. Once I get started, the possibilities will reveal themselves.