Act boldly!

"Act boldly and mighty forces will come to your aid."

I found this statement in Reader's Digest.

Don't be put off by that. The statement is true. The difference between success and failure is not that you got beaten by someone else or circumstances. Most of the time we fail because we don't even get on the starting blocks.

Woody Allen says 85% of success is simply turning up.

Look at the great brands. Not one of them has been built by meekness. Aggressive self-belief and dramatic action typifies success in marketing.

Zigging when the others zag. Risking ridicule. Almost inviting it.

Now I met with a 'client' recently who has been in the marketing boss's chair way too long. This person can't act boldly because they have so much to defend. And they are afraid that any time the knife will drop. Probably a great marketing operator stifled by having too much to lose.

This person tells me they know their customers - plainly bullshit. It's a very rare company that knows its customers at a level they need to for making intelligent decisions. Do you know their favourite radio announcer or the last book they read? Those that do know their customers well vibrate at a higher frequency than this organisation. My task: to win the client's confidence and free them from the shackles of office to make bold decisions.

I'll write a paper just for him, on 'customer DNA'. That ought to cheer him up.

You can't do good work for a client who's afraid. The best and most spectacular successes I have engineered for clients have been for those who had more faith in the solution than even I had.

Anyway, back to the topic. You make your own luck. If you expect to fail you will. Even if it's the wrong thing to do, do it boldly and you'll probably win through just through impulsion and energy.

If someone asks me can I do something, I say "Yes" and then go and find out how to do it. That's a risky strategy, but it works for me. Takes me out of my comfort zone, into the danger zone.

Dancing in the danger zone... Nothing like it!