14 of the most dangerous words in the English language can be broken down into two simple seven-word phrases.

You’ve all heard them. Many of you have probably said them:

“This is how we’ve always done it,” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

This mindset can ruin powerful business empires. Blockbuster’s refusal to adapt to the idea brought forth by Netflix ultimately led to their demise.

An engineer at Kodak invented the digital camera. When he brought the idea to the company leadership, he was told that Kodak was in the business of print and ink. The idea was shelved and Kodak ended up going bankrupt with the rise of the digital era.

Blackberry was riding so high on their product that they ignored the idea of touchscreen technology, believing it was little more than a novelty.

Business failures aside, the concept has a far darker outcome as we look back on history.

Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing before performing surgery could stop the spread of infection. He was ridiculed for his ideas and they were not widely accepted until decades later — at the cost of countless lives.

At the outset of the First World War, generals fought in the same way they did during the 18th and 19th centuries. Sending their soldiers charging valiantly into battlefields — into the onslaught of automatic weapon fire and modern artillery. The resulting trench warfare tactics caused the months-long battles to be referred to as little more than meat grinders.

Killing in the name of peace, environmental destruction in the name of freedom, and slavery in the name of progress.

Continuing blindly along the path of the status quo has led to some of the most destructive tendencies of humanity’s existence.

If you decide that it isn’t broken, you won’t look for cracks.

And you’re doing it the way you’ve always done it, you’ll never change.