We talk a lot about how the fitness industry is changing and how omnichannel -- a mix of brick and mortar and digital options -- is the path forward. In one of the last articles I posted online, I talked about how we’re thinking of “disruption” in the wrong way. Think of the music industry from 2000 to 2010. That was the prime disruption decade for music and yet, live attendance and record sales essentially tripled. So we think disruption brings down traditional means and revenue streams, but in reality -- nope it doesn’t. Digital works with traditional for a bigger, better path forward. A rising tide lifts all boats. Right

You’ve probably heard the expression that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” It’s a bit of a cliche or a trope, no doubt -- and sometimes when applied in business, it can make you groan.

But it’s actually really important as a concept to understand how and why so many people are thinking incorrectly about disruption.

Let’s start by admitting something obvious, just so people don’t get mad and go nuts in the comments: disruption is real. It’s happening. Let me give you two quick examples on that:

Last time out, I wrote a little bit about what’s wrong with leadership in the western business world today. A lot of business journalism and leadership writing is pretty buzzword-heavy and cliche-driven, so I tried to toss a few grenades and not pull many punches in what I did. Some of you seemed to like it, so that’s good.

Of course, anyone can come out and bitch about the various problems with anything. Hell, that’s part of why Yelp became so popular -- people love to criticize and have outlets for that criticism. But as we know from any business model since the dawn of time, it doesn’t matter if you can see the problems -- it matters that you have some kind of plan to fix the problems.

Look, I’ll come right out and say it: we’ve got a leadership crisis in a lot of parts of this country -- and hell, even the world.

Sure, sure. We all know about the so-called visionaries like Jeff Bezos. His company prints money, or at least prints growth -- even though it might well be a terrible place to work. We know about Jack Welch and Steve Jobs, and we deify ‘em. We love Marc Benioff and Jeffrey Immelt, and when they give a speech, we rush to watch it. Reed Hastings has all the answers!

Because of the rate at which technology and new developments can move (thank you, Gordon Moore), we see new “stuff” cropping up all the time. As that’s been happening, we’ve spent the better part of two decades deifying founders, from the PayPal Mafia to Zuck. You toss in shows like Silicon Valley and guys like Evan Spiegel ending up with $1 billion and Miranda Kerr via an app where one of the most popular features is making yourself a dog, and you’d probably assume we live in this amazingly entrepreneurial, start-up world.

We did, but we don’t necessarily still live in it.

Let’s run down a few facts before we get into the repercussions.