New Edition is touring right now.  Here’s why that’s significant. I have been in
love with New Edition since I was 13 years old. I was one of their original “Candy
Girls.”  I will be 45 this year, they are still touring and I am just as excited about them as I was
when I was a child. This is impactful because, as many of us “Candy Girls” know;
New Edition has not had an easy time of it. The group they started with,
which included Bobby Brown, did not consistently have Bobby Brown in it.  Bobby Brown was the disgruntled, uncooperative
employee that many people have to re-evaluate. So what did they do? They hired
someone new. It was a big change. You usually don’t want to change your crew,
particularly if you grew up with them. However, when they hired Johnny Gill, a
seasoned professional, he raised their stock in a major way. He literally took
them, from “Boys to Men”, his signature song, which also inspired an entirely
new group, by that name, that went on to HUGE success. Over the years, New
Edition changed their format. They have broken off. Ralph, the lead singer,
went solo. Johnny went off and became a part of LSG. Ricky, Mike, and Ronnie
went off and formed BBD.  The lead
singers even formed a group called, “Heads of State.” They all had great
success. They have now since come back together and when they perform, it’s a
beautiful collaboration of “Original” New Edition, “Johnny Gill” New Edition, “Johnny
Gill plus Bobby has gotten his life together” New Edition, “BBD serving that
Poison” New Edition, “Ralph telling you how sensitive he is while also letting
you know that he’s got to do what he’s got to and let you go” New Edition, “Johnny
is encouraging you to put on that red dress and slip on those high heels” New
Edition. It is an amazing thing that they’ve been able to do.

The lesson here for all of us, whether you own a business or
not, is that we must adapt to what life serves us. We have to adjust when
things change.  Look at what happened
when they made the BIG change of replacing Bobby with Johnny; the group was
better. The group was stronger. The group was able to tour in 2016 when they
had begun touring in the very early 80s. Don’t be afraid of change or of
changing your entire format. Don’t fear what could happen wrong because SO much
can happen right.