Marketing, more than a lake or a forest, is the landscape of our modern lives.
So we take the deal. We agree to do a job in exchange for a set of instructions. And for the hundred years that it led to increasing standards of living, it seemed like a very good deal.
I think most people have it upside down. Being charismatic doesn’t make you a leader. Being a leader makes you charismatic. There.
Marketing is the act of making change happen. Making is insufficient. You haven’t made an impact until you’ve changed someone.
What most people want in a leader is something that’s very difficult to find: we want someone who listens. Why.
Marketers make things better by making change happen.
If school is about postponing the day you have to stand up in front of the world and put yourself at risk, the resistance would like to stay there forever.
Most of the time, we deal with the obstacles by persevering. Sometimes we get discouraged and turn to inspirational writing, like stuff from Vince Lombardi: “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” Bad advice. Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.
Marketing is one of our greatest callings. It’s the work of positive change.
The first thing a leader can focus on is the act of tightening the tribe. It’s tempting to make the tribe bigger, to get more members, to spread the word. This pales, however, when juxtaposed with the effects of a tighter tribe. A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.
The challenge is to ask a two-part question: What next? What now? Asking is the hard part.
The problem is that most schools don’t like great teachers. They’re organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average.
The analysis, based on past events, certainly seems sound. But following your instincts is the only way you’re going to do something unsound.
Your story is a symphony, not a note.
Marketers make change happen: for the smallest viable market, and by delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people actually want to get.
A movement is thrilling. It’s the work of many people, all connected, all seeking something better.
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.
No, the reason that most of them didn’t have a chance is that somewhere along the way they quit. They didn’t quit high school or college or law school. Instead, they quit in their quest to be the best in the world because the cost just seemed too high.
Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.
Every time you find yourself following the manual instead of writing the manual, you’re avoiding the anguish and giving in to the resistance.