Survival Demands Change

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to a Red Sox game with my son. When I was his age, I was an avid fan—arriving early, keeping score, and staying until the final out was made. These days, I’d call myself more of a happy observer. I don’t know most of the players’ names, and I go more for the community atmosphere and the quality time with whoever I’m with. And, unless it’s a really exciting game (or one that starts relatively early), I’m usually ready to leave after about three and a half hours.

This game was no exception. For six innings, the action was fairly uneventful. The Sox took an early lead in the third after a balk brought a runner home—a first for me. Then the Orioles answered with three runs in the fifth. At the end of the eighth inning, when the Sox left the bases loaded, I was ready to go. But my son wanted to stay so, of course, we did.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Sox tied it up, and I thought this game could now go on forever. However, at the top of the 10th inning, I noticed something strange: a runner was already on second base. I thought I’d missed a play, but then it happened again when the Sox came up. Curious, I asked a fan behind me and learned about a new rule: since 2020, Major League Baseball has started each extra inning with a runner on second base to help speed up the game. Since then, the league has not only made that rule permanent but also added the pitch clock (which I was keenly aware of) and other changes—like larger bases, limits on infield shifts, and tighter rules around mound visits—to keep the games moving along.

The Sox left the bases loaded again in the 10th, and the Orioles scored the winning run in the 11th. But the whole game wrapped up in less than three and a half hours—a small miracle compared to the five-hour marathons of my youth.

As I crawled into bed before 11 PM, I couldn’t help but think: baseball didn’t change because it wanted to—it changed because the world around it demanded it. And the same is true for people and brands. If we don’t evolve as everything around us evolves, we risk becoming irrelevant. Here’s why.

1. The World Won’t Wait for You. Baseball didn’t stand still—it adapted to keep pace with modern life and attention spans. Likewise, the world around us is constantly evolving. If we don’t adjust along with it, we risk being left behind.

2. Small Tweaks Can Make a Big Difference. The pitch clock didn’t change the essence of baseball, but it shaved off nearly half an hour of dead time. Often, it’s not wholesale reinvention that keeps us relevant—it’s incremental adjustments that respond to shifting expectations.

3. What Feels Strange Today Becomes Normal Tomorrow. The runner-on-second rule felt odd. But with time, it’ll simply be how extra innings work. Change that feels uncomfortable at first often becomes the new baseline, and those who adapt fastest benefit the most.

4. Resistance Doesn’t Stop Progress. Plenty of purists pushed back against these rules, but baseball moved forward anyway. The same goes in business and life: clinging too tightly to the old ways won’t stop the world from moving on—it just stops you from moving with it.

5. Adaptation Is Survival. Those who refuse to evolve risk irrelevance—or extinction. While baseball may not have been at risk of extinction, it was certainly at risk of losing some of its audience. The same is true for companies, communities, and individuals.

That night at Fenway wasn’t just a reminder of baseball’s willingness to change—it was a reminder that we need to change, too. The world around us is in constant motion, and tradition alone won’t keep us in the game. To survive, and even thrive, we have to evolve with it. Otherwise, like a team that refuses to adjust its lineup, we’ll find ourselves stuck in the past while the world races ahead.

As always, if this message resonates with you, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit from these insights. I’d also love to hear your thoughts here.