God, The Great Photographer, has made you lense-like.
He points you at things to unveil that which is not seen with the naked eye.
You can capture poetry in the midst of chaos.
You can grab music within a bunch of noise.
It’s your job to click and share the poetry and music.
We are anxiously awaiting the results from your aperture exposure.
Charlie Tremendous Jones said, “The only difference between where you are now, and where you’ll be next year, are the books you read and the people you meet.”
In other words, success will be found in shaking more hands with your paper cut fingers.
It is people and ideas that hold the melody to the music you will be (or won’t be) making 12 months from now.
Let’s chat about the unexpected – in the good sense of the word.
Like when I ordered the wrong dish at my favorite restaurant. They brought me what I ordered, but it was not what I had traveled 1000 miles to have. Their response? A tasting tray of the finest dishes they offered, a bottle of champagne, and the dish that I was originally hoping for – all on the house. Unexpected.
Zappos loves this concept. My wife wanted to exchange her shoes I got her for Christmas. With one call they shipped the new shoes without having the other ones sent back yet. Unexpected. 48 hours later my wife had happy feet.
Or the delivery of just because flowers. Unexpected – and the petals always seem to convey what our words can’t.
The unexpected finds us speechless in the moment, but leads to us not being able to keep our mouths shut about the story that unfolded.
Mastery of the unexpected will build your followers quicker than anything else you can pursue.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatama Ghandi
“If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at your self then make a change.” Michael Jackson
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy
“Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” Frank Herbert
It appears the biggest hurdle for us changing the world is the guy we shave with.
It probably should not be classified as battle, but I eavesdropped on three wives (one of which was mine) having a “who knows the best vacuum” debate this weekend.
It went like this…
Wife 2: “I really want a __________ (brand name) vacuum.”
Wife 1: “Oh, I was going to ask for that brand for Christmas, but was told by soooo many people not to.”
Wife 3: “Well, if my vacuum didn’t have a chord, I would vacuum everyday!”
Wife 1: “You should see my chord. Press a button, and the chord winds itself back into the vacuum.”
Wife 3: “No way.”
Wife 1: “Way.”
And for five more minutes they had their vacuum debate…
Welcome to our new business ecosystem.
The goal in this new ecosystem is to be the last brand standing or Best In Class for your product or service when three wives strike up their battle royal.
The three wives care more about each other’s opinions than any direct mailer, infomercial, tweet, or even a Super Bowl ad. Said another way, it’s all about the social boat we sail on, and we hate to rock the boat.
This should make us all question our marketing dollars.
Never once did they mention how well the vacuum sucked. That’s the reason for a vacuum debate, right? Not so much. Best In Class, here, was all about functionality, noise levels, and chord winder-uppers.
This proves the Simon Sinek belief when he says, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Ashton.Gustafson 