I started thinking about the dangers of ego and the story about Blockbuster video came to mind.  If you haven’t heard it, here’s the Cole’s Notes version.

It was 2000. Blockbuster was sitting on top of the world — 60,000 employees, 9,000 stores, a brand so dominant it had become a Friday night ritual for millions of families. Then two guys walked into their Dallas headquarters with a proposition: buy our little DVD-by-mail company for $50 million.

Blockbuster laughed them out of the room.

Those two guys were Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Their little company was Netflix.

By 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Netflix is now worth over $400 billion.

Here’s the hidden gem I want to highlight. Blockbuster didn't fail because Netflix was smarter. They failed because they were certain. Certain they knew what the market wanted. Certain the model was solid. Certain that they knew more than Hastings and Randolph.

And the ripple effect of the downfall? It didn't stop at the boardroom. It rolled through 60,000 employees, franchise owners who had mortgaged their futures on the brand, suppliers, landlords, communities…on and on. One entity's refusal to stay curious enough to ask, "what is this telling us?" took a lot of people down with it.

Now, before we point fingers at a boardroom that no longer exists, let's get honest with ourselves. Because Blockbuster isn't just a corporate cautionary tale. It's a human one. And many brands replicate the pattern identically.

They commission surveys then take the data that suits and dismiss the rest. They put Ambassadors in the field who operate more optically to appear the brand is listening.  Many stay their course – especially today with the help of AI – and customers are simply expected to go along.

Now given that this is a human story, let’s take it a level deeper in personal ownership.  We commission our own surveys, too – ask our friends and family, colleagues and partners, who know and love us enough to tell the truth about how we’re doing – then we skim the stuff that resonates, give a polite nod to the rest, and go right back to doing what we are doing. 

But could at least some of those messages, signals, insights, or responses be hinting at “opportunity”? What are we really protecting when we allow the ego to step in, smooth and convincingly, with a, “I already know what that means and it’s not about me”.

Aha! ~ What ego calls certainty, humility recognizes as a blind spot.

Pride is sneaky that way. It doesn't always show up as arrogance. Sometimes it shows up as certainty. As a wall that goes up fast. As a verdict rendered before the full story arrives. As an exit that craves an audience.

And the cost? Same ripple, smaller pond. The relationship that could have survived a conversation but didn't survive a pride. The partnership that had every ingredient for success but couldn't absorb one honest piece of feedback. The version of ourselves we didn't get to meet — the one who could have sat with a little discomfort and come out the other side with more awareness, more depth, more connection.

Here's what I've learned in 40 years of helping corporations design and implement recognition programs, and in a lifetime of watching humans navigate one another: we all like to know we're on the right track. That's not weakness. That's wiring. The question is whether we can also stay open to the signals that say course correct — the ones that don't come with applause. The ones that come when our internal being is ready to expand.

That takes something different. It takes humility. Non-judgment. Curiosity. And yes — courage. Real courage, not the absence of fear but the willingness to move forward in spite of it.

It means pausing before we deflect insights we weren’t expecting – ones that might have come with an ouch - and asking, “Why am I receiving this information?”  Then …

Am I listening — or have I already decided?

Am I responding — or am I reacting?

Is this a boundary, or is this pride with a secretly defensive vocabulary?

The market will keep speaking. The people in your life will keep sending signals. The question is never whether the messages are coming. And the answer is never that we need to entertain it all – that’s where discernment comes in. The question is whether we're humble enough — and brave enough — to check the ego and just plain listen.

Blockbuster heard it. They just didn't believe it because ego protects.

Don't be Blockbuster.  Choose curiosity.  Be courageous.

A new way of thinking doesn’t imply that our old way of thinking was wrong. It simply points to the dynamic way we evolve, one Aha! Moment at a time.  Join us Tuesday at 2:00 pm eastern in Human U where we’ll massage humility and courage just a little more!