What Really Guides You When Systems No Longer Work
Six years for a dream. Twelve days from the finish line. And then it was all over.
My own show at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart. Up to 6,000 people. I had worked toward this moment for six years. Then COVID hit.
Events banned. Game over.
Trust me, in a moment like that, motivational quotes and the perfect five-step plan are the last things you care about.
After my first thought – “What the fuck?” – there was only one question left:
What now?
A keynote about those moments when the plan stops working – and what actually helps us move forward when it does.
You probably know your own “What now?” moment, too.
Hopefully on a slightly smaller scale.
You have a plan. You work toward it. And then something happens that simply wasn’t part of the plan. Suddenly, what worked yesterday doesn’t work anymore.
What now?
That’s when you find out what really guides you. Not when everything is going according to plan.
But when you wake up in the morning and still have no idea what comes next.
I couldn’t change COVID.
But I could change my next move.
The event ban was real. The Porsche Arena remained empty. And six years of work changed exactly nothing about that.
Trust me, I could have found plenty of reasons to be angry. But that wouldn’t have changed anything either.
At some point, I had to ask myself a different question:
What can I actually influence right now?
You’re not responsible for everything that happens to you.
But you are responsible for what you do with what’s in front of you now.
Unfortunately, we don’t get a vote on which direction the wind blows.
Sometimes you can do everything right and things still turn out differently than you planned. That happens in business. And it definitely happens in life.
The only question is how long you want to keep spending your energy wishing the wind were blowing in a different direction.
You can spend all day complaining about the wind. Or you can adjust your sails.
The wind is still the same.
But suddenly, you can do something again.
And you know what’s crazy about all of this?
What felt like the biggest setback of my life eventually became my biggest breakthrough.
From that cancelled night at the Porsche Arena, my journey suddenly led to Hollywood. To an Oscar-winning producer. To a screenplay about my story. And to possibilities far bigger than anything I had imagined for that one night.
Not because I knew it would turn out that way.
I had no idea.
But at some point, I got back up and took the next step.
And that’s exactly what this keynote is about:
You don’t have to know today where your next step will take you.
But you do have to take it.
How did the biggest setback of my life turn into something I could never have planned?
I’ll tell you that story on stage.
Do you want to strengthen this way of dealing with change and setbacks in your company?
Then let’s talk.
Enquire keynote "What Really Guides You When Systems No Longer Work" now.
Norman Gräter:
Why do I speak about setbacks?
Certainly not because I always know what comes next.
Quite the opposite.
I know what it feels like to have a plan, give it everything you’ve got – and eventually realize:
This plan isn’t going to work anymore.
The Porsche Arena was the most visible moment in my life when that happened. But it certainly wasn’t the only one.
What I’ve learned over the years is something else: I can’t decide what happens tomorrow. And I can’t change every person or every situation to make things turn out the way I want them to.
But I can decide who I want to be in that moment – and what I do next.
That’s where self-leadership begins for me. Not with having the perfect answer.
But with the willingness to take another look – and take the next step.
