A good friend said something today that stood out to me: “When water wants to flow downstream, you can’t push it uphill. It runs through rocks, concrete, or whatever is in its path and always finds a way. You can slow it down, but you can’t stop it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to go with the flow than against it.” We were discussing innovation and how we used to resist certain technologies we didn’t understand—only to later have to say “Yeah, that makes perfect sense” and feel like we were late to the party.

My friend is spot-on. Sometimes I have to remind myself to pay attention to a trend. It may not make sense to me, but clearly—it being a trend—it’s making sense to others, and I should spend time trying to understand and embrace it. That’s better than fighting it, only to end up having to play catch-up and buy into it later. I now try to be like water and go with the flow.

The world is going to change, with you or without you. Innovation is going to happen, whether we like it or not. It makes a lot of sense, I think, to stop fighting that and make an effort to understand and be part of the trends.

Next time you’re thinking that something that doesn’t make sense, consider asking yourself: am I going against the flow?