STOP Looking For The Secret Sauce & Do This Instead!
I was inspired to write this after seeing more and more “bro-marketing” content being plastered all over the web nowadays.
Folks, I’ve been in a lot of businesses over the years. Some of them grew to make millions, and others, well, didn’t.
What’s the difference between the ones that made it and the ones that didn’t?
I have no idea. And neither does anyone else. At least, not in actuality. You can say a lot in hindsight. That offer was excellent, that ad campaign was excellent, their business model was revolutionary, etc.
We live in a world of uncertainty. We always have, and we always will. COVID-19 is showing us just how uncertain this world is.
There are businesses who were in a precarious cash flow situation that are now out of business in part because of the pandemic. There are businesses who were in a similarly precarious cash flow situation but have grown immensely in part because of the pandemic. Neither of these situations are the fault of the pandemic!
These businesses shared the same problem (precarious cash flow situation) and yet one of them lived and the other died. If you had told the owner of the now-defunct business that their business was going to fail because of a worldwide pandemic that killed tens of thousands of people, he likely wouldn’t have believed you… even if he believed that there would be such a pandemic!
That’s the kind of uncertainty we’re talking about.
For years I’ve always felt disadvantaged because I thought that others just knew what it took to succeed but I didn’t. That explains why I didn’t achieve my goals.
Now I know that nobody truly knows the answer. Because there IS no answer.
There is no “do this and your ads will work”. There is no “offer this and you’ll make millions”. There is no “create this and you’ll have your unicorn”.
There, instead, are principles. Work hard, be willing to take risks, focus on the most important things, sell something people truly want and will benefit from, and surround yourself with excellent people. Among others.
But none of these are sufficient. Required, yes, but not sufficient.
We can all agree on this, yes?
So why in the world would we listen to a guru who claims to know what it takes to win in business?
Right now, at the time of writing this, the majority of the world’s population is under some sort of enforced lockdown. As a result, we have a lot of time to consume and create content.
While consuming this content, please beware of people who claim to know all the answers. Nobody knows all the answers. And it’s easy to get sucked into a belief in a quick fix, especially during a time when things feel more uncertain than before.
So what should you do? Do nothing, because there is no answer?
Of course not.
Instead, do what you believe to be the most important thing. Only you know your path, and only you can walk it.
But don’t do nothing. Do something.