On July 25th, 1965, Bob Dylan went onstage at the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his electric guitar and played the chords to "Maggie's Farm". The audience, who had come to see an acoustic poet, the folk voice of the generation, were caught by surprise.
When we enter into a negotiation (in particular, a B2B deal), our usual (and natural) goal is to push for the very best deal possible. We analyze our situation, detail our requirements, assess the competition and evaluate alternative options that meet (or come close to meeting) our needs.
So, I got this email the other day from a company that offers bespoke clothing for men. By all accounts, it's a brand that offers quality, tailor-made products at reasonable economics. They sent me this promo because - as you'll see in the headline - I'm a VIP.
I was at a conference recently and one of the speakers was sharing the story of how he built his firm - an organization he grew over a number of years, one that he ultimately sold for over a Billion dollars.
We put a lot of work into achieving our goals and getting ourselves to where we want to be, whether in our relationships, our ventures or our careers.
It's a crazy idea, one that's quite difficult, if not impossible, to implement. (And, many might argue, not desirable, either.) But like a lot of Tom Peters' ideas, it's provocative.
There are a number of writers and thinkers I look to on a regular basis for ideas, inspiration and insight, and Seth Godin is one of them. For many years, now, he has upended my view of what is important, what we should value and what we should focus on. It was his writing that got me started with my own blog.
Isn't that the truth?
Lets not lose our minds in the race to maturity, responsibility and so-called growth.
Years ago, I remember reading that if you want to tell how good or trustworthy a person is, you should observe how they treat waiters and waitresses.
Anyone who is nice to you, but not nice to their servers, is not fundamentally a good person.
In my old firm, we had a mentorship system whereby every individual was assigned a mentor at least one, if not two, levels up from their position. The role of the mentor was not just to provide day to day counsel but also to help guide the development of their mentees, and represent them during the performance appraisal process.
Tom Petty wasn't the best guitarist on the music scene. He didn't have the most diverse musical repertoire, in terms of styles. And he was never the biggest rock star - certainly not at the level of, say, Springsteen, or Bono.
...Such as the Double Car Keyring I get at most car rental agencies.
I've never bought the premise that we "shouldn't take it personally, it's just business".
What it suggests is that we are detached from what we do. That we conduct our work devoid of any emotion. That, on any given day, we engage in our work dispassionately.
There's always going to be a time when schedules don't work, and you have to take an airline you don't normally fly.
All too often, we're paralyzed by this delusion that is inspiration. We harbor grand ambitions, our dreams to 'be' what we aspire to be. But our movement towards those goals remains stalled, as we wait. For inspiration. For motivation. For some exogenous force to provide us with the impetus to change, act and transform.
If you love SciFi, the 80's, great stories or all of the above, then Stranger Things needs to be on your list of TV shows to watch. (You'll need a Netflix account.) It's been such a hit that a couple of of guys here in Chicago decided to launch a pop up bar in the Logan Square neighborhood. By many accounts, the bar has been a hit.
The New York Times published a really interesting article last week on the evolving depictions of women in stock photos. It showed the most popular (top selling in terms of downloads) images from 2007 through to 2016, and illustrated how the nature of the top images have changed...
Vulnerability is not dirty word. Regardless of your role within a corporation, being open with your thoughts and feelings, especially in key business communications, is an essential skill. One that cements the role of the leader, especially, with his or her broader team.
When we refer to "marketing bullshit" within our own organizations, it's usually because there are one of two problems at play (sometimes both).
The first, as I discussed in my last post, is that our sales and marketing communications are off. We aren't being honest, we aren't being forthright. We aren't speaking with integrity.
