Following five simple tips can prepare businesses for the changes they will undergo in the next 10 years, according to Tomball businessman Joe Nichols, Jr.

Nichols’ wisdom comes from owning a Houston freight-shipping franchise, Unishippers, and the years he was told he would not be able to hold down a steady job after a car accident when he was 20 years old left him paralyzed from the neck down.

“The prediction is that more changes will happen in business in the next 10 years than most of us have seen in our entire lifetimes,” he told business people at the monthly Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday, June 6. “You have to change your business from the inside out if you want to be prepared.”

He said this statement is based on research by technology forecaster and business strategist Dan Burrus, who has published several books on the future of business.

Nichols’ first step is to always do the right thing morally without regard for profit.

It has always paid off for his business, he told the crowd, citing an example in which paying for a $1,500 mistake led to someone investing $100,000 in his company because of the trust they had built.

As long as doing the right thing is the goal more than profit, businesses will be prepared for upcoming changes, he said.

Leading business with a culture of optimism is the second key to success in the future, he says.

After the wreck that left him paralyzed, he said, he was convinced his dreams would never come true and he focused on the negative aspects of life. When he starting seeing the glass as half-full instead, people wanted to be around him more.

“All it was was a matter of choice,” he said. “I didn’t even take a paycheck my first two years, it was tough. Those of you who have started your own business, you know. But it was a self-fulfilling prophecy that our optimism and enthusiasm began to fill our reality.”

One major key to being more efficient in business, he said, is to focus on fixing the problem and not fixing the blame.

The great thing about his paralysis, he said, was that it eliminated his ability to point his finger.

This goes hand in hand with his fourth tip: build on strengths. If an employee is not working out exactly how the boss has in mind, the boss should focus on what the employee is good at and not what he or she is doing wrong, he said.

“We’ve never managed to hire a perfect person,” he said. “Lord knows we’ve tried.”

By the same token, people should focus on the strengths of their businesses rather than trying to eradicate weaknesses.

His final tip to business owners is to look for curb cuts. A six-inch curb is the same for someone riding in a wheelchair, he said, as a 10-foot wall is to someone who is walking.

“It is an obstacle in my way that literally will keep me from going where I need to go,” he said.

Curb cuts are places in sidewalk curbs that allow wheelchairs to get onto the sidewalk.

In the United States, he said, curb cuts are easy to find. On a trip to Mexico, not being able to find a curb cut nearly kept Nichols from going into a store he wanted to go to. He became discouraged, he said, but eventually found a cut in the sidewalk and was able to go where he wanted.

“Isn’t that often so true in our lives?” he said. “You can see where you want to go but that obstacle is in the way. There are curb cuts in your life. I challenge you in the next 10 years: you will see curbs, just remember my simple analogy.”