Nova: Imagine you're the king of the butter industry. Life is good. Then, suddenly, a cheap, pale, and frankly, unappetizing competitor called margarine appears. What do you do? You panic. You lobby the government to force it to be dyed a sickly pink color. This actually happened! And it's the perfect example of how our first instinct in the face of change is often to panic and make terrible decisions.

Absjd: It's such a wild story, and so human. You try to legislate your competition out of existence instead of innovating. It’s a fear response, pure and simple.

Nova: Exactly. But what if there's a better way? In his book 'Build for Tomorrow,' Jason Feifer argues there is. And that's what we're exploring today with our guest, Absjd, who brings this incredible analytical lens to topics like leadership, technology, and mindset. Welcome, Absjd!

Absjd: Thanks for having me, Nova. I'm excited to dig in. This topic feels more relevant than ever.

Nova: It really does. Today we'll dive deep into this from two perspectives. First, we'll explore the surprisingly predictable emotional journey we all go on during times of change. Then, we'll look at the high-stakes corporate drama that shows what happens when leaders fail to adapt, and what we can learn from it for our own careers and lives.

Nova: So let's start with that journey, Absjd. Feifer breaks it down into four phases: Panic, Adaptation, New Normal, and the one we all want to get to: 'Wouldn't Go Back.' It's a roadmap for chaos.

Absjd: I love that, a 'roadmap for chaos.' It suggests that even when things feel completely out of control, there's an underlying pattern we can recognize and work with.

Nova: Precisely. And there’s no better story to illustrate this than one from the book about a landscape painter named Meg O'Hara. Before 2020, Meg had a thriving business. She painted these beautiful, large-scale landscapes for ski resorts. That was her niche, her entire business model.

Absjd: A B2B artist, essentially. Her clients were big institutions. I can already see where this is going.

Nova: You got it. When the pandemic hit, travel shut down. Ski resorts closed. And overnight, her entire pipeline of commissions evaporated. Everything she had built was gone. That’s the first phase: Panic. She said she just let herself freak out for about 48 hours.

Absjd: That's such a powerful detail. What strikes me from a leadership and mindset perspective is that she gave herself to panic, but she time-boxed it. It wasn't an indefinite state of despair. That's a crucial first step for any leader facing a crisis—acknowledge the emotion, but don't let it become your strategy.

Nova: That's the perfect way to put it. Her strategy came next. After those 48 hours, she said, "OK, some of the greatest ideas are going to come out of this time. If there was ever going to be an opportunity for me to pivot in an interesting direction, maybe it’s now." That’s the shift into the second phase: Adaptation.

Absjd: So she moved from reacting to creating.

Nova: Exactly. She realized that while the resorts weren't buying, the who loved skiing were still out there, stuck at home, dreaming of the mountains. So she completely changed her business model. She started marketing her work directly to individual skiers, building relationships, and selling to them one-on-one.

Absjd: She went from B2B to B2C. That's not just a small tweak; that's a fundamental reinvention of her business. It required new skills, new marketing, a whole new way of thinking about her customer.

Nova: A total reinvention. And here's the kicker. By making that pivot, she didn't just survive. She thrived. She ended up doubling her revenue, hiring her first employee, and winning a '30 Under 30' award. She reached that final, magical phase: 'Wouldn't Go Back.' She said her business was fundamentally better, more resilient, and more fulfilling than it was before the crisis.

Absjd: Wow. That story gives me chills. It perfectly maps the framework. But it also connects to something I think about with personal finance. The 'panic' phase is the person who sees a market downturn and sells everything at a loss. It's a pure, emotional reaction.

Nova: Right.

Absjd: The 'adaptation' phase is the person who pauses, maybe stops investing for a moment, but then re-evaluates their long-term strategy. They might shift their allocation or look for buying opportunities. They are adapting to the new reality instead of just reacting to the fear. The goal, just like for Meg, is to build a portfolio and a financial future that's stronger in the long run, where you can look back at the downturn and say, "I'm glad I stayed the course and adapted."

Nova: That is a perfect parallel. It shows how this framework isn't just for entrepreneurs; it's for anyone navigating uncertainty, whether it's in their career, their finances, or their life. It’s about understanding that panic is a starting point, not a destination.

Absjd: And that the destination can be somewhere even better than where you started.

Nova: And that failure to adapt, to move past that panic phase, is what separates the survivors from the footnotes of history. Which brings us to one of the most famous business stories of all time: Netflix versus Blockbuster.

Absjd: Ah, the classic cautionary tale. I'm always fascinated by the human decisions behind these huge corporate failures.

Nova: Well, get ready for a doozy. The year is 2000. Blockbuster is a six-billion-dollar global empire with thousands of stores. They are the undisputed kings of home video. Their entire model is built on physical stores and, crucially, on charging late fees.

Absjd: Those dreaded late fees. A huge profit center for them, but a major point of friction for customers.

Nova: A massive point of friction. Meanwhile, a tiny, struggling startup called Netflix has a different idea: rent DVDs by mail, with a monthly subscription and no late fees. They're losing money, and their founder, Reed Hastings, decides to make a Hail Mary pass. He flies to Blockbuster's headquarters in Dallas to meet with their CEO, John Antioco.

Absjd: So the small fish is swimming right into the shark's mouth.

Nova: Exactly. And Hastings makes his pitch. He says, "Let us run your online brand. We'll handle the dot-com side of things, you handle the stores. We can create a seamless experience." He offers to sell Netflix to Blockbuster for 50 million dollars.

Absjd: Fifty million. That's pocket change for a company the size of Blockbuster at the time.

Nova: Pocket change. And how did the Blockbuster executives respond? According to the Netflix co-founder who was in the room, they fought not to laugh out loud. They essentially laughed Reed Hastings out of the room. They saw Netflix as a "very small niche business" and couldn't imagine a world where their brick-and-mortar empire, powered by late fees, wasn't dominant.

Absjd: Wow. Being laughed out of the room... The arrogance is stunning. From a leadership standpoint, Blockbuster's failure wasn't technological; it was a failure of imagination. They couldn't see a world that didn't revolve around their existing profit centers.

Nova: That's the heart of it. Feifer points out this is a classic case of focusing on the potential loss—their lucrative late fee revenue—instead of extrapolating the potential gain, which was the entire future of home entertainment. They were in the panic phase, just like the butter industry, and their response was to protect the past instead of building the future.

Absjd: They were so focused on what they had, they couldn't see what they could become. They defined themselves as a company that ran stores and collected late fees, not as a company that delivered entertainment to people's homes. That narrow definition was their death sentence.

Nova: A death sentence is right. Blockbuster doubled down on its old model. Netflix, having been rejected, had no choice but to adapt and survive. They perfected their mail-in service and, most importantly, they kept their eyes on the horizon. When internet speeds got fast enough, they made the leap to streaming. By 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Today, Netflix is worth hundreds of billions.

Absjd: And we see this pattern again and again with new tech. Think about industries grappling with AI right now. It's the same choice. Are you the Blockbuster, trying to ban it or ignore it because it threatens your current way of doing things? Or are you the Netflix, asking, 'How can we use this to build what's next? How can this tool make us better, faster, smarter?' It's a fundamental mindset choice that every leader and every individual has to make about their own career.

Nova: You're so right. Are you going to be made obsolete by the change, or are you going to be the one who harnesses it?

Nova: So we have these two powerful sides of the same coin. On one hand, we have Meg O'Hara's personal journey through change, showing us that there's a path from panic to a place you 'wouldn't go back' from.

Absjd: A path that shows crisis can be a catalyst for positive reinvention.

Nova: And on the other hand, we have the corporate ghost story of Blockbuster, a giant that got stuck in the panic and protect phase and became a footnote. It’s a stark warning about the dangers of resisting change.

Absjd: Exactly. And I think Feifer's big challenge to us, the actionable takeaway, is to not wait for the crisis to hit. He has a chapter titled "Change Before You Must." It’s a proactive principle. Don't wait for your industry to be disrupted or your job to become obsolete.

Nova: Start your pivot now, even a small one.

Absjd: Yes. So the question I'd leave for everyone listening is this: What is one area in your professional or personal life where you feel a change is coming? It could be AI in your industry, a shift in your company's strategy, or even just a personal goal you've been putting off. Instead of waiting for the crisis, what is one small, adaptive step you can take to start building for your own tomorrow?

Nova: That is a fantastic, powerful question to end on. It takes the whole conversation and puts the power right back in the listener's hands. Absjd, thank you so much for sharing your insights today. This was brilliant.

Absjd: It was my pleasure, Nova. A fascinating book and a great conversation.