{"id":3906,"date":"2023-06-01T22:16:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T04:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10043\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2024-10-18T07:06:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T13:06:23","slug":"uncommon-path-can-be-a-challenge-but-reap-rewards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/uncommon-path-can-be-a-challenge-but-reap-rewards\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncommon path can be a challenge but reap rewards"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 Robert Frost, summer 1915<\/p>\n

I was thinking about these words from the poet Robert Frost as I walked through the gate.\u00a0 It was chaos.<\/p>\n

There had to be at least 100,000 people walking in 10,000 different directions.\u00a0 I took a breath and looked at my map.\u00a0 With so many paths to follow choosing wisely felt hard.<\/p>\n

It had been years since I\u2019d attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.\u00a0Between the work and kid juggle and the pandemic I was out of practice, so it took a bit of time to get oriented as I made my way into the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

For anyone who’s never been, New Orleans Jazz Fest is one the largest music festivals in the country.\u00a0\u00a0With over 400,000 people attending, fans are treated to dozens of musical performances of all genres spread across 13 stages. \u00a0Add in over 40 Louisiana-style unique food vendors, an arts and crafts village, Mardi Gras Indian parades, and lots of beer and you have a delicious gumbo of fun.<\/p>\n

But as any veteran \u201cJazz Fester\u201d will tell you, with so many people and so much to do and see, there\u2019s a strategy to it.<\/p>\n

Do you see a big-name act like Ed Sheeran, Herbie Hancock, or Santana or do you check out a smaller stage featuring a local zydeco or Mardi Gras Indian funk band?\u00a0 Do you stand in a long line for some crawfish etouffee or take the quick path to a plain old (but scrumptious) shrimp po-boy?<\/p>\n

With wall-to-wall people, food lines, bathroom lines, random puddles of mud, and so many options of things to do\u2014Jazz Fest is not easy to navigate.<\/p>\n

Surveying the busy scene, I knew what I needed to do.<\/p>\n

I decided to heed Robert Frost\u2019s advice and take the road less traveled.\u00a0 My best chance for a successful Jazz Fest weekend was to go to the least popular stages. Sure, I may miss the big name acts, but I also may also discover something new that could be even better.<\/p>\n

In business, taking the road less traveled takes courage. It means diverging from the comfort of the crowd and taking chances on the unknown.<\/p>\n

In my day job, our tech services company has been in a \u201croad less traveled\u201d mindset as of late.\u00a0 Coming out of the pandemic we have finally had a chance to think outside the box on what we could offer our customers that\u2019s new and different.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been looking for new twists on our existing services that would differentiate us from the crowd. We\u2019ve been searching for original offerings that could take us down our own path. \u00a0\u00a0And, we\u2019ve spent time looking inward at our processes and procedures for any contrarian approaches that would make us more efficient.<\/p>\n

Our search for roads less traveled has been a challenge but it\u2019s brought with it a spirit of innovation and excitement. \u00a0It\u2019s been a culture boost for our entire team.<\/p>\n

But going against the grain carries with it some risk.\u00a0 At Jazz Fest you could end up at small stage seeing a band that doesn\u2019t rock your world.\u00a0 In business it could mean lower profits or even losses.<\/p>\n

This calculated risk, however, is often worth taking. Following the well-worn road can make it hard to differentiate yourself and grow. It can eventually lead to your product or services being seen as a commodity. And perhaps worst of all\u2014it can become boring.<\/p>\n

In the end, my road less traveled approach to this year\u2019s Jazz Festival paid off. I avoided the crowds and discovered some amazing but lesser known musicians who are now among my favorites.<\/p>\n

If Robert Frost was at Jazz Fest, I\u2019m sure he would have been walking right along beside me.<\/p>\n

JJ Rosen is the founder of <\/em>Atiba<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0a <\/em>Nashville custom software development firm<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and <\/em>IT support company.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Visit <\/em>Atiba.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more info.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” \u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 Robert Frost, summer 1915 I was thinking about these words from the poet Robert Frost as I walked through the gate.\u00a0 It was chaos. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-tennessean","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}