Each week, as a radio talk show host, I have the opportunity to interview successful professionals and possible mentors. They share their lessons for success, surviving, and even thriving in our radically changing world.

This past weekend, I sat down with Karla Diehl, president of Edison Automation. Karla first came to Nashville in the mid-80s to study at the Vanderbilt Business School. She studied hard and also met her husband. She earned her MBA, married, and then took a job at American Financial Corporation in Cincinnati.

Over the next year or so, Karla and her husband settled into their lives. They had one son and she was pregnant with a second son when news from Nashville changed their lives. The friend of a friend told them about a business that was going into bankruptcy and they could buy from the bank.

The business was hands-on and very different from what they knew. Running it would be a challenge and an opportunity. It would be a chance to test what they had learned. So, two years later after leaving, they returned to Nashville and tried their hand at business.

They worked at home, in the office, on the floor. They worked all the time and they turned things around. Within six months, they were in the black. Within two years, they were up a million. A decade later, they made the Inc. 500 for fastest revenue growth.

When they bought their business, Karla admits, they didn’t really know much about it. What they soon realized that their business, like the technology around it, was radically changing every two or three years. They survived because they changed. They thrived because they watched technology and planned their changes in advance.

As Karla described their realization and their willingness to change, I thought about the music business. Over the past decade, has technology changed any business more than the music business?

One of Nashville’s top music lawyers recently told me how he has survived-surely, no one has thrived in-the upheaval so far. When his world started radically changing, he watched and planned carefully. He confirmed relationships with marquee clients and committed to add only two new clients per year. It takes three years to develop new talent and, with luck, they’ll have ten-year careers. You have to invest your time and resources.

But everything is changing. Everyone is gambling. Will you stand by your client? Will your client stand by you? Will the markets favor you both? Who knows? How can you tell? Ask.

Even as she described her remarkable success with Edison Automation, Karla admitted that they should have done some things differently. First, she said, they should have asked more mentors and professionals for help. They were always working and there never seemed to be enough time to really find mentors or professionals. Though they were so self-confident and enmeshed in their work, they might not have listened anyway. Recently, she has served as a mentor for other local entrepreneurs and she applauds them for their wisdom and willingness to ask for help.

The good news, of course, is that there are plenty of people and organizations out there willing to help you. Karla likes The Entrepreneur’s Organization (www.EONetwork.org). Membership is open to founders and owners under 50 years of age whose companies have $1 million or more in annual revenues. The network also offers an Accelerator Program for founders and owners whose companies have $250,000 to $999,999 in annual revenues. Every dollar counts.

You can visit www.USChamber.com and review a list of local chambers of commerce near you. Thanks to the Service Corps of Retired Executives (www.SCORE.org), you may even be able to obtain free advice from a volunteer who once had your job or something like it. You can always ask your lawyer, accountant, colleagues, friends, and family to recommend trusted mentors and professionals. They probably know you well enough to help you find someone who really works for you. Finally, if you’ve reached the point where you’re confident and comfortable giving advice, consider mentoring. As entrepreneurs, we welcome change. We can also plan to survive and thrive by helping each other.