Eclipsed: the darkness that came from the side.
This week, on my regular evening walk, the sky went dark. Then, a little later, it went dark again.
The first was the eclipse: 90% of the sun disappearing behind the moon, the closest the UK has come to totality since 1999, and something we won’t see again for well over seventy years. The second was simply the sunset that followed it, arriving as it always does.
Standing between the two, I noticed something I hadn’t expected. They didn’t feel the same at all.
Darkness that descends and darkness that arrives sideways #
A sunset dims from above. Light fades gradually, predictably, the way it has every evening of your life. You barely notice it happening, because you’ve seen it a thousand times before.
The eclipse didn’t behave like that. It came in from the side; a strange, sideways dimming that had nothing to do with the sun sinking anywhere. It was surreal, genuinely. And it was a privilege to let something I had absolutely no control over simply wash over me.
Then it lifted, and it lifted quickly. That’s the part a sunset never does. Once the sun starts setting, it only ever goes one way; dimmer, then dark, then a proper night settles in. The eclipse reversed itself. The moon moved on, and the light simply came back, almost as fast as it had gone.
That distinction has stayed with me since, because it’s exactly how real disruption tends to work in business too.
Most change looks like a sunset. The change that matters rarely does. #
We spend a great deal of energy watching for the obvious, gradual kind of dimming: the client relationship cooling slowly, the market softening a little each quarter, the warning signs everyone can see coming from a mile off. That’s the sunset. Predictable, survivable, rarely fatal on its own.
The change that catches us off guard almost never announces itself that way. It comes in sideways, from an angle nobody was watching, while everyone’s attention was fixed on the horizon where they expected it.
But here’s the more hopeful part, the one the sunset can’t offer at all: sideways disruption doesn’t have to be permanent. Often, it’s passing through, the way the moon was always going to move on. The light can come back almost as quickly as it left, if you’re patient enough to let it.
Tonight’s eclipse was a genuinely rare thing to witness. But the lesson it left me with is a fairly ordinary one: keep half an eye on the side, not just on the horizon.
Thank you for reading.
Author: Richard Bull-Domican, founder of New Era Financial Introductions, a B2B lead generation consultancy with over twenty years of experience. The perspectives shared here come from two decades in the field; not theory, but practice.
I create small, digestible guides on Gumroad for business owners who hate aggressive tactics and prefer relationship-led approaches. New resources are added regularly. For longer reads on lead generation and the human side of sales, follow me on Medium and join the daily conversation on LinkedIn.
Gumroad: https://richardbulldomican.gumroad.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@richard-bulldomican
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbulldomican/
