Need A Push?

When last did you push your car?

Using every inch of your body while bursting at the seams just to get the car to move. Thinking to yourself: “I’m not sure I can do this.”

Then all of a sudden the car starts to shift and inch, then another inch, and before you know it you’re pushing just hard enough to keep the car rolling as you trot along behind it. What started as a mild case of self-doubt turned into a severe case of self-confidence.

Launching a marketing campaign is just like pushing a car. There are laws in this universe that cannot be cheated and they apply to all areas of our lives.

One of these is the law of inertia, defined as “the tendency of all objects and matter in the universe to stay still if still, or, if moving, to go on moving in the same direction.”

Your car won’t begin to roll the moment you push it, neither will it stop the moment you stop pushing it. Inertia might be your enemy at first but quickly turns into your ally.

Momentum is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t come easily (or cheap).

Likewise, marketing doesn’t begin to work as quickly as you would like, but it also doesn’t quit working until long after it has been abandoned.

Where are you now?

Trotting behind your car, giving it the occasional nudge to help it along? Or are you still pushing with all your might trying to get it moving?

If you ever find yourself pushing and straining, call me. I’ve been waiting my whole life for the chance to help you push your car.

 -Martin

Overchoice strikes again!

People seem TIRED, BEAT UP, AND EXHAUSTED, but it’s not the things we’re doing that is wearing us out. It’s the things we’re not doing.

It’s thinking about the things we “should’ve” done that is slowing us down.

Whether we’re window shopping, channel surfing, or just browsing the World Wide Web, we’re constantly faced with an overflow of options. Overchoice strikes again!

This is not only keeping us average, it’s making us tired. We trick ourselves into thinking we can “find time” or “make time” for all the things we’d like to do, yet time can neither be made nor found.

We cannot manage time, we can only manage ourselves.

Too little time is spent thinking about what we really want.

For example, every day seems to get started in the same way – a big rush. We wake up, we DO what we have to, and we retire thinking about what we “should” have done.

This is robotic in its purest form.

One of my business partners would always use the example of flying ping-pong balls. He would stand a few feet away from me and toss me one ping-pong ball. I catch it easily – but when he tosses the rest of the balls together, I come up empty handed.

I automatically try to catch ALL the ping-pong balls and end up with none. The unique person who can actually hold on to a ball is the person who focuses on only one ball from the group and ignores the others.

Would you like to quit feeling rushed and pressured? Quit channel surfing. Ignore all the choices you are not making, just like you ignore the ping-pong balls you do not wish to catch. And your reward will be a nice brand new ping-pong ball that belongs solely to you.

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

-          Martin

Manage Or Lead?

A lot can be said for Alexander the Great.

He was a dreamer who inspired everyone around him with his big visions of great possibility. Always on the front lines he never let his injuries or mishaps deter him from his greater goal. He shouts encouragement and never quits.

Alexander was renowned for knowing each of his soldier’s names. He would even send his men home after battle to be with their wives and children so that they can be well rested for the next battle. It’s no wonder they loved him so much.

When “The Great” was around people would become filled with inspiration. He could ignite passion in even the hardest men. He was a natural leader who conquered the known world until illness overcame him at thirty-three.

The life of Alexander clearly displays the difference between management and leadership.

He was a great leader capable of many tasks but an average manager at best.  He didn’t devote any time to accountabilities, systems or sustainability. Instead he would inspire and lead his men straight to victory. As a result his empire almost immediately disintegrated upon his death.

In the following fifteen hundred years the Romans wouldn’t see another leader like Alexander. Yet their system for management holds the Roman Empire together for decades, even centuries.

Even the greatest managers cannot do the job of a leader, and more so a leader cannot manage. Success is the result of having the right person in the right job at the right time.

Are you a leader or a manager?

What does your company need right now?

There is a time for Revolution and a time for Evolution.

Which time is now?

-          Martin