Arthur Hughes La Belle Dame Sans Merci painting

Arthur Hughes La Belle Dame Sans Merci paintingAlbert Bierstadt Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains California paintingAlbert Bierstadt In the Mountains painting
Google keeps trying to find other ways to make money besides its simple service of providing text ads that are responsive to search terms input by users. In 2007, contextual ads still generated 99% of the company’s $16.5 billion revenue. Google keeps trying a bunch of other things but most don’t work and those that do don’t become big cash generators. But they keep trying, or at least buying, new things.
Most successful business people take an idea that is good in one industry and do it again - often in that same industry. The best ones do it again and again and again. They don’t automatically abandon a successful Business and head off in other directions. They might try new things like Google does but they don’t abandon the stuff that is already working.
The core message here is the value of reflection to find those things in your past that have worked for you. Do them again. But there is a disconnect. Why aren’t we automatically doing this? Why isn’t it as obvious as it seems? We do we often move away from things that are working? At least part of the answer lies in finding new excitement in the “been there, done that.” Here are some reasons for repeating things that have worked for you in the past: