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of which disappeared in relatively short order: Nortel, Lucent, Wellfleet, SynOptics, IBM, DEC, Cabletron, Alcatel, 3Com, and many more. Many were bigger, or more established, than Cisco at one point. I’d like to believe they just couldn’t keep up, but the truth is that many stumbled because the world changed faster than they did. While each company had its own unique set of circumstances, they all failed to catch one thing: a market transition. Some became so focused on winning the game they were playing that they didn’t notice a new game was starting on the next field. Others stopped listening to their customers. They focused on improving products that were becoming obsolete, diversified into the wrong business, or picked the wrong partners. They held fast to analog technology as the world went digital. They didn’t disrupt, so they were disrupted.

      Cisco not only survived, it thrived. When I stepped down after 20 years as CEO in 2015, the company had become a $47 billion-a-year tech giant with over 70,000 employees. We moved from having a single product to 18 different business lines, with a No. 1 or No. 2 market share in all but a few of them. From the TV programs that stream into your home to the data being generated by a smart grid, we’d helped millions of people connect and protect their data across the network. We did it through building great technology and teams, through listening to customers and partnering with innovators. We acquired 180 companies over the course of two decades and developed innovation playbooks that could be replicated across the company and beyond.

      But it all starts with what I learned from West Virginia: the need to stay ahead of the next wave. It’s a lesson that applies to every individual, every business, every state, and every country today. If disruption isn’t at the core of your strategy, you’ve got a problem. A market transition is not a threat. It’s a period of movement from one state to another, when the skills needed to do your job change, when your customers move on to a new technology, or when an economy shifts to new model. It can happen on its own, or as part of a wider trend. What matters is that you recognize it’s both a reality and an opportunity. Those who ignore where the market is going or waste a lot of money in trying to fight it never get very far. They might try to fall back on familiar tactics or pick an easy fight with a traditional rival. When you compete against another company, you’re looking backward. When you compete against a market transition, you learn how to see around corners. Growing up in West Virginia taught me that no one is immune from disruption. Those lessons apply whether you’re a small business that’s looking to grow or a multinational that’s trying to shift to a new model. The ability to figure out what change will look like three to five years before it happens—and then act on it—is how you’ll win.

      I’m not wringing my hands over what happened to the minicomputer industry in Boston. As with coal mining in West Virginia, the disruption of an industry doesn’t mean the people and places that once depended on it have to be left behind. We all have choices. They might not be easy choices, but the message here is a positive one: Those who embrace change are about to experience one of the most innovative—and potentially lucrative—periods in human history. Digitization will transform every industry and interaction. For the brave, there will be opportunity. For those raised on a foundation of strength and family, like the people of West Virginia, there will be a chance to lead. This isn’t a Hillbilly Elegy that views those who’ve been disrupted as a lost cause. You can reinvent. I am investing in business education and entrepreneurship through West Virginia University for the same reason that I’ve invested time in writing this book. I believe the next wave of innovation will connect and empower people on a scale never before seen, giving everyone a chance to compete.

      Who will win in this transition isn’t clear. I lived in Pittsburgh in the 1980s, when steel companies kept announcing job cuts and there seemed to be nowhere for ambitious young people to go but away. Today, Pittsburgh has become a model of entrepreneurship and innovation. You can feel the excitement and see the results. Silicon Valley, in contrast, has gone from being viewed as a place that helped the world solve its problems to one that’s also causing problems, from a job creator to a potential job destroyer. When I first came to Silicon Valley, a lot of the leaders had strong ties to other parts of the country: Netscape’s Jim Barksdale grew up in Mississippi, Larry Ellison hailed from Chicago. Now the Valley seems a little more inbred and out of touch with the average person in America. Silicon Valley is becoming less a magnet for top talent than a target that many of them want to beat. I think Silicon Valley will adapt, but nobody can take success as a given.

      So don’t write off West Virginia. I’m betting on the Mountaineers and believe my home state can become a startup state if the university, business, and public sectors come together to support transformative innovation. We’ve seen companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Apple, industries like automotive and energy, and countries like India and France reinvent themselves. They don’t focus on preserving old industries or an old way of life, they understand that sticking to a current course is their biggest risk. Your ability to understand and get ahead of market transitions will determine whether you stumble or rise above the rest. In the next chapter, I’ll share some of the techniques that you can use to connect the dots and get a better sense of where the world is going.

      For me, though, it all starts with confronting the realities of the world that we’re in and the urgent need to adapt ahead of change. There were times in human history when the job you inherited from your parent was pretty similar to the one you’d hand down to your child. We don’t live in those times. Most of us understand the disruptive power of technology and can feel the accelerating pace of change. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this book. At the same time, though, there’s no reason to panic or underestimate the strengths you already have.

      I’ve talked about how I learned to spot and move on transitions from my dad. I learned equally important lessons from my mom about the power of connecting emotionally with people and of genuinely respecting others, regardless of their status or stature. I’ve always considered my employees my family. From time to time, I’ve had different communications experts suggest “family” is inappropriate when talking about employees, wanting me to use “team” instead. I love the notion of teams and use it often, but I’ve also always considered my employees my family and have always tried to treat them accordingly. I think they’ve known that and it has made a difference in good times, but especially in challenging times. I couldn’t have gotten thousands of employees to move as fast as I’ve needed them to if they didn’t trust me, and trust comes from feeling valued and respected. I also don’t know any other way to operate.

      The lessons and values that my mom and dad handed to me are similar to the ones that Elaine and I taught our son, John, and daughter, Lindsay. And bear with me, as a proud parent, when I tell you how I now see them live those values every day in their professional and personal lives. Lindsay wouldn’t be the leader in her field of residential real estate development and interior design if she wasn’t highly attuned to the changing patterns, preferences, and trends of her partners, clients, and industry at large. She’s always looked forward and dreamed big. And John has created a career helping disruptive companies like Houzz, Netflix, Walmart.com, and JC2 Ventures enter new markets, adopt new strategies, and understand changing customers. They’ve both achieved success while operating with the highest integrity, building strong relationships, and genuinely caring about people around them. Although my children didn’t grow up in West Virginia, they are also as proud of our family’s ties to that state as Elaine and I are. You don’t have to disrupt who you are to disrupt what you do.

      I love West Virginia. There’s nowhere like it on earth. At the same time, the story of my home state is a cautionary tale in what can happen if you don’t make bold moves to get ahead of a market shift. You have to disrupt, or you will be disrupted. Like our own stories, this one is far from over. Nobody is too far behind to come back and nobody is so far ahead that they can’t be replaced. The strengths that you build can be deployed in a new way. It’s not easy but if you start by shifting your focus to the big picture and look for clues to what’s around the corner, you’ll have a head start on those who are focused on preserving the past.

      I’m starting this book in West Virginia, in part, because it’s where I got my start in life. The bigger motive, though, is that I see a lot of parallels with what happened in my home state and what’s happening in every part of business, the country, and the world today.

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