Focus on Flow

Excerpt from business memoir originally written Jun 6, 2023,

A Change in Perspective: Staying Relevant Amid Market Shifts
By J. Andrew Green

As an entrepreneur on the verge of my 30th year in business, I’ve grown accustomed to change. You’d think by now things might have leveled off—systems humming along, operations running on autopilot, and time finally opening up for leisure and games. Many self-help books suggest just that: build strong systems, sharpen your skills, envision your goals—and the rest will take care of itself.

They’re not entirely wrong. But the truth is: change is the only constant. These books offer tools that help us gain perspective and calm the fear of becoming irrelevant in the face of younger competitors, disruptive software, or AI-controlled cyborgs (or at least the metaphorical kind). Yet, year after year, the small shifts accumulate. Towers fall. Microscopic bugs in the air reshape the world. These transformations can pull the rug out from under us, upend everything, and grind even the most carefully charted future to a halt.

In those moments—breathless, sails flat—we’re met with a stark choice: adapt or fold.

So here we are, at what feels like rock bottom. And where are all the self-help gurus now? Starting over isn’t quite as exciting the second or third time around. We may suspect that hype and hustle won’t be enough this time. Rebuilding will demand real energy—but we also know we carry with us something more valuable than energy: wisdom.

Still, it’s fair to ask—where do we begin?

That’s where a shift in mindset can help. And for me, that shift comes down to one word: flow.

Flow, in both the literal and metaphorical sense, offers a powerful lens. It allows us to zoom out, trace patterns, and understand how things work—from the ground up and the top down.

Let’s pause here—yes, I know, this is another analogy. Guilty as charged. I’m from the South, where storytelling and embellishment are basically cultural inheritance. I’ll try to keep the yarns to a minimum, but I make no promises. (My kids have mastered the art of nodding patiently while I tell them a story they’ve already heard a dozen times. They’re good kids.)

Back to flow.

It’s one of those concepts that works on every level. Picture a surfer riding a pipe wave on a Hawaiian beach—leaning forward, skimming the water’s surface, perfectly balanced atop a 30-foot wall of motion. Or, imagine a quiet alpine stream where a single red leaf floats downstream, dancing past rocks and swirling whirlpools. Now zoom out—a drone rises to show the full valley, winding stream, and snow-capped mountains.

There’s flow in that.

Or flip a switch: light fills a room. Electricity courses through wires and instruments. This invisible current, moving silently and instantly, powers our daily lives. Or think about a text message—a string of digital characters flying at the speed of light through fiber optics and Wi-Fi, landing on your wrist with a soft buzz: “See you in a couple of days when you get back to the East Coast.”

Flow is everywhere. It's natural. It's mechanical. It's biological. From the movement of stars in the sky to the unfurling of a young fern in spring. Flow defines how systems behave. It’s both beautiful and practical. And if we understand it—really understand it—we can do more than just survive change. We can ride it.

That brings us back to rebuilding. When things fall apart, my advice is this: start from the top and build to the bottom. Open your mind to new ideas, observe the larger picture, and align your energy with where the momentum already exists. Once that perspective is in place, shift focus to your organization—start from the bottom up. Fix what you can. Partner with your team to map out how to address the rest. Don't force flow—work with it.

Reading Max Borders' The Social Singularity helped reinforce this thinking. Despite its impressively long title, the book makes a compelling case for how decentralization, culture, and technology can offer new paths forward. At its core, it’s really about understanding how systems flow—and how to stay nimble within them.

If you can trace the flow of a system, you can understand its drivers. Follow electricity, and you learn how circuits work. Follow information, and you begin to understand the internet. Trace behavior, and you understand the markets, teams, and communities you serve.

That’s where your value lives.

Understanding flow keeps your mind sharp. It connects tiny inputs with massive outcomes. And once you understand how something works, you can repair it, rebuild it—or improve it entirely. That’s not something easily replicated by a robot or a 22-year-old startup founder with a brand-new app. It’s earned wisdom, shaped by decades of navigating change.

And change, after all, is inevitable.

So stay in the flow.