“Turn and face the Strange, if you want to be a richer man. Turn and face the Strange it’s gonna have to be a different man . . .”.

I met David Bowie, then Davy Jones, when he was 15. I was 16, exactly a year older, we shared the same birth date.

He was playing at a local village hall with his band, ‘Davy Jones and the Lower Third’.

Last time I saw him was his ‘Ziggy Stardust’ concert at the Hard Rock Hall in Manchester. (Now a B&Q in Old Trafford!)

Back to that time, the words are from the song ‘Changes’ on the album of the same name.

Like many of the words Bowie wrote, it’s very profound and very meaningful.

To become a richer, which I interpret as ‘better’ as ‘riches’ aren’t just about money, or different (which you will be) man or woman, you and I need to face the ‘strange’, the different, the new.

Because we aren’t going to get ‘richer’ or ‘progress’ in whatever way we desire unless we not only ‘face’ but embrace the strange or the different. because we have no chance of becoming better or even just changing unless we do something.

You and I know, we can’t get different results by persisting in doing the same things when we want to change. We cannot expect to get different results by carrying on with the ‘same old, same old’.

In my consulting career, I’ve heard it so many times, “that’s the way we do things around here” and “the only thing that ever changes is the name on the back of the jacket”.

It seems many people and companies have an obsession with the status quo. They only feel ‘safe’ when they are doing what they do how, and perhaps why, they’ve always done it.

I found in one large national organisation a great deal of effort was expended in passing ‘information’ from one level of management to another only for it eventually to disappear without any action being taken, into a ‘file’ and never seen again.

It’s a philosophy of ‘this is the way it is’, ‘stay safe’, ‘don’t take risks’, ‘change is dangerous’, ‘don’t argue’ and don’t resist the way things are.

But then, somewhere, often at the top, we have the alternate philosophy of ‘what can possibly go wrong’, or ‘how hard can it be’, if we propose to do something different or something strange.

(Catch phrases of Jeremy Clarkson, but clearly espoused by Donald Trump!)

The thing is, people who have done something different, something strange, have reaped incredible benefits – Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, and many more. Although of course sometimes it doesn’t work out as it still  has to be ‘thought through’.

What’s the point of all this?

I hope you’re getting the drift. If you desire to move onward and upward, however successful you are now, you need to face the strange.

Whatever it is you think of doing, or maybe are advised, coached or counselled to do, then embrace it.

Check it out.

Then if you are willing to take the ‘risk, if there really is one, and of course which you must if you wish to succeed at whatever level

Give it a go.

Take advice if you want from a trusted advisor, coach or mentor.

FACE THE STRANGE and move forward.

Do it now.