How Malware Got Me to “Think Different”
In May my desktop machine that I use for work got hit with *nasty* malware. Up until this point, I had been completely virus free — mostly because I have always practiced ultra-safe (re: paranoid) practices: i.e. don’t download files from people you don’t know, use virus scanning software, have a great firewall, etc.
So I have no idea how malware breached my defenses. I only know that once it infected my machine, it caused pain. Lots of pain.
I spent hours reading techie boards trying to figure out how to dislodge it.
I spent more hours running programs designed to delete it — to no avail.
I paid over $500 to have a computer tech guy come to my office and remove it.
Nothing worked. The malware was so evil, it turned off Windows automatic updates, refused to allow anti-malware programs to open and run, took over my scanner, and then ultimately my Web browser. When that happened, I knew I was hosed.
That morning I unplugged my machine and lugged it to the local computer fix-it guy who did a complete “wipe and reload” — computer speak for reformatting my hard drive and then reloading the operating system.
Because of the havoc with my machine, I had limited access to files and information, including Outlook and ACT! — and began using Gmail as a stop-gap measure.
Once I got machine back and began reloading all of my software programs, the proverbial light went on . . . and I realized how much time and money I had been wasting all these years on bloated software programs that forced me to work their way, not my way.
Using Google’s Gmail, Tasks and Docs apps got me thinking about cloud computing . . . which got me thinking about how I really work . . . which got me thinking about cloud computing again . . . which led me to doing demos with products that I had never even considered.
Thinking about how I really work made me think about my business in new ways — which opened up a whole treasure trove of ideas and possibilities. I even bought an iPhone, something I had resisted. Buying the phone made me see marketing from a whole different perspective.
I began asking myself, “What do I really want to do?”
In their book, The Power of Focus, Canfield, Hansen and Hewitt talk about how our normal behavior is based on ingrained habit. For example, we may have one way of driving to the supermarket — and take that way every single time — without thinking about it. Driving the same route means we never see anything new on the way to the market.
It’s the same for our work habits. We get locked into doing a task the same way — and never change — which can blind us to new opportunities or ideas.
Looking back at the notes I kept during my “malware” period made me see that having an infected machine was the best thing that could have happened to me — although at the time I didn’t see it that way.
It forced me out of my rut, got me to try new things, and opened my eyes to new ideas and vistas — all of which I’m in the process of implementing.
I don’t recommend infecting your machine with malware to get you to “think different.” However, I do recommend you try different ways of working to see what pops up for you.
Look at what you’re resisting and instead of resisting it, embrace it. For example, I am a book lover and could never imagine reading a book on an electronic device (shudder). However, I recently downloaded the Amazon Kindle iPhone App and can’t believe what a pleasure it is to read books this way. I even fell asleep on the couch while reading it — something I believed could never happen. How cool is that?
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Do you have an experience that forced you to do something in a different way — and what did you learn from it?
