Mark: The butter industry once got so terrified of a new competitor that they successfully lobbied to have it legally dyed an unappetizing, stomach-turning pink. Michelle: Wait, for real? Pink? Like bubblegum pink? Mark: Exactly. That competitor was margarine. It’s a hilarious, true story about how pure, unadulterated panic makes us do incredibly stupid things. Michelle: That is the most bizarre corporate sabotage I have ever heard of. It sounds like something out of a cartoon. But honestly, it also sounds weirdly familiar. That level of freak-out when something new threatens the old way of doing things. Mark: It’s a perfect entry point into Build for Tomorrow by Jason Feifer. He's the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, and what’s fascinating is that he wrote this book right in the thick of the pandemic, observing how everyone, from individuals to entire industries, was going through this exact cycle of panic and adaptation. Michelle: That makes so much sense. The whole world had a collective panic attack in 2020. So this panic thing isn't new, is it? It feels like we're hardwired for it. Mark: That’s the central argument. We are absolutely hardwired for it. And Feifer uses these incredible stories, some historical and some modern, to show us that pattern over and over again.

Michelle: Okay, you have to tell me the full butter versus margarine story. I need to know how anyone thought pink butter-adjacent spread was a winning strategy. Mark: It’s a fantastic tale of self-sabotage. In the late 1800s, margarine appears. It was invented in France, actually, at the request of Napoleon III who needed a cheap butter substitute for his troops. It comes to America and it's a hit, especially with the working class, because it's affordable and shelf-stable. Michelle: And the butter industry, I'm guessing, did not send a welcome basket. Mark: They lost their minds. They were the dominant, established power, and they saw this as an existential threat. So, what do they do? They don't innovate. They don't try to make better butter or market their natural qualities. They launch a full-on fear campaign. They started spreading rumors that margarine was made of diseased cattle or dead dogs. Michelle: Oh, classic. The 19th-century version of fake news. Mark: Totally. But it gets better. When the fear-mongering didn't fully work, they turned to lobbying. They pushed for what was called the Oleomargarine Act. And this is where they tried to force margarine makers to dye their product that unappealing pink color to mark it as an "imitation." Michelle: That’s just so petty and defensive. It’s like they were trying to legislate their competition into being ugly. Did it work? Mark: For a little while, in some states. But the Supreme Court eventually struck down the forced-coloring laws. So the margarine companies came up with a brilliant workaround. They started including a little packet of yellow food coloring with each brick of white margarine. It turned the act of coloring your margarine into this little at-home chemistry project. It made it novel, even fun. Michelle: Wow. So the butter industry’s panic actually made margarine more engaging for consumers. They played right into their hands. Mark: Precisely. By the 1950s, margarine consumption had surpassed butter in the United States. The butter industry’s panic-driven strategy completely backfired. And this is the first major lesson from the book: panic is a natural response to the fear of loss. But when we act from that place, we make terrible, short-sighted decisions. Michelle: It’s the story of so many legacy companies, isn't it? Blockbuster seeing Netflix as a joke, or Kodak, which actually invented the digital camera but shelved it because they were scared of losing their film business. They were all panicking about what they would lose. Mark: Exactly. And Feifer’s first big prescription for this is a powerful mental shift. He says we need to learn to extrapolate the gain, not the loss. Instead of obsessing over what might disappear, we need to force ourselves to imagine what could be created. What new value, what new opportunities, what new future could this change unlock? Michelle: That sounds great in theory. But it feels so much easier to see what’s right in front of you that you’re about to lose, than to imagine a hypothetical gain that doesn't exist yet. How do you actually do that when you’re in full-on panic mode? Mark: Well, that's the perfect bridge to Feifer's central framework for actually doing that. He lays out a four-phase journey that he argues everyone goes through during a major change, whether they realize it or not. It’s a roadmap out of the panic.

Michelle: Okay, I'm ready for the roadmap. What are the four phases? Mark: He calls them: Phase One, Panic. Phase Two, Adaptation. Phase Three, New Normal. And the final, most important one, Phase Four, Wouldn't Go Back. Michelle: Wouldn't Go Back. I like the sound of that. It’s optimistic. But these feel a bit abstract. Can you walk me through what they actually look like in real life? Mark: Absolutely. And the book uses this perfect, modern story to illustrate it. It’s about a landscape painter in her twenties named Meg O'Hara. Before 2020, she had built a really successful business painting huge, beautiful commissions for ski resorts. That was her entire model. Michelle: Oh, I can already see where this is going. A business model based entirely on travel and tourism right before the pandemic. That’s rough. Mark: Devastating. The pandemic hits, travel shuts down, ski resorts close. Her entire income stream evaporates overnight. She is in Phase One: Panic. She told Feifer she basically allowed herself to freak out for 48 hours, drank some wine, and just felt the terror of her career collapsing. Michelle: I think we can all relate to that feeling. So what happened next? How did she get to Adaptation? Mark: This is the key. After letting herself panic, she said, "Okay, some of the greatest ideas are going to come out of this. If there was ever a time to pivot, it's now." She started thinking. Her old clients—the resorts—were gone. But who else loves ski slopes? Michelle: Individual skiers. The people who actually go there. Mark: Exactly. So she completely shifted her business model. She started marketing her work directly to individual skiers and ski-loving families. She built relationships with them online. She started doing smaller, more personal commissions of their favorite mountains or ski runs. This was Phase Two: Adaptation. It was a grind. She was building a new muscle, a new market, a new way of selling. Michelle: So Adaptation isn't just one magic idea. It's the hard work of making that idea a reality. It's the messy part. Mark: It's the messy, uncertain, and often exhausting part. But then, something started to shift. The new model started working. She was building a community. Her sales were becoming more consistent than the old, lumpy resort commissions. She was feeling more in control of her own destiny. That's Phase Three: New Normal. The new way of doing things no longer felt new or scary; it just felt… normal. Michelle: Okay, so that’s the point where you’re not just surviving anymore, you’re actually stable in the new reality. But what about that last phase? What does it take to get to 'Wouldn't Go Back'? Mark: That’s the most beautiful part of the story. A year or so later, Meg looked at her business. She had doubled her revenue from her best pre-pandemic year. She had hired her first employee. She had won a local "30 Under 30" award. Her business was more resilient, more profitable, and more personally fulfilling than it had ever been. Michelle: Wow. Mark: And Feifer asked her if she would go back to her old business model if she could, and she said absolutely not. She had reached Phase Four: Wouldn't Go Back. The change that had initially brought panic and terror had forced her to build something so much better that the past was no longer appealing. Michelle: That’s incredible. So the 'Wouldn't Go Back' phase isn't just about surviving, it's about thriving in a way you couldn't have even imagined before the crisis. It’s not just recovery, it’s transformation. Mark: That’s the entire point. It’s the ultimate gain that you couldn't see when you were panicking about the loss. The book is filled with these examples, from the Bubonic Plague accidentally creating a middle class because of labor shortages, to a performing arts academy that was forced to shrink class sizes during COVID, only to discover it led to happier teachers, better student outcomes, and a more stable business. They all reached a point where they wouldn't go back.

Michelle: It’s fascinating when you lay it out like that. You can see the two paths so clearly. The butter industry got stuck in Phase One, Panic. They fought the change, tried to make it ugly and illegal, and ultimately, they lost ground for decades. Mark: They never adapted. They never looked for the gain. But Meg O'Hara, she felt the panic, but then she moved through the other three phases and built a future she wouldn't trade. The framework isn't just a nice theory; it’s a map to get you from that irrational 'pink margarine' moment to a 'Wouldn't Go Back' future. Michelle: It really makes you look at the next inevitable change differently. Whether it's a new technology at work, a shift in your industry, or a personal life change. The default reaction is, "Oh no, what am I about to lose?" Mark: Right. "My job is going to be automated," or "This new software is going to make my skills obsolete." Michelle: But this framework encourages a different first question. It’s not about loss. It’s, "Okay, this is happening. What could this become? What new skills could I learn? What new value could I create that wasn't possible before?" Mark: Exactly. And Feifer's final point is that you don't have to wait for a crisis to do this. The book really encourages you to ask, "What change can I make before I must?" It’s about proactively looking for your own 'Wouldn't Go Back' moment, instead of having one forced upon you. Michelle: It's about building for tomorrow, not just reacting to today. I love that. It feels empowering. It makes me think about changes I've resisted in my own life that actually turned out to be for the best. Mark: We all have them. The painful breakup that led you to find a better relationship, the layoff that pushed you into a more fulfilling career. Michelle: Absolutely. And on that note, we'd love to hear from our listeners. What's a 'Wouldn't Go Back' moment you've had in your own life or career? A change that was terrifying at first but ended up being an incredible gift. Share your stories with us on our social channels. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.