These are things we can’t control.
I spend very little time on them.
What I do spend time on
is our reaction.
That we CAN control.

Lori Ann LaRocco
talks about this in her Forbes post.

“A great example is
Steve Sadove at Saks.
He said while he couldn’t control
the buying habits
of the consumer
during the height of the crisis,
the one thing he could control
was inventory.
He and his team
then took the necessary steps
to tackle that problem
through discounts and
also cut back on ordering
for the next season.”

Focus on what you can control.

Why?

Because analysts are making
a classic new product launch mistake.
They are assuming that
the competition will do nothing
in reaction to the launch.

They’re assuming the competition
doesn’t drop prices
or launch an improved product
or… or… or…

That’s silly.
Of course, the competition
is going to react.
Of course, the iPad won’t be launching
under the current conditions.

That’s why there’s secrecy around launches,
why change has to be large,
why it helps if that change is ownable
by the launching company.

Assume your competition reacts
to your launch…
because they will.

The results?

“The more creative the work,
the less motivation required
to hit peak levels of performance.
Studies reveal that creativity diminishes
when individuals are rewarded
(externally motivated)
for doing their work.
Why?
The desire to achieve the goal
overtakes the personal interest in the endeavor.
A myopic focus on the outcome
overshadows the intellectual stimulation
of the process.
As a result, risk taking becomes reduced
and creativity vanishes.”

That is why
often companies separate the creativity process
and action taking
(either with different people,
a lag in time between the two parts,
or by some other means).

We come up with ideas, simply ideas.
We test them using concept and idea screeners.
Eventually we take action.
But the two processes are separated.

This is what happens in the writing world too.
An established author will flesh out
several ideas,
pitch them,
and months later, write one or two or all of them.
There is a lag.

Being creative and taking action on the same day
usually means less than original solutions.

But people like to work with him
because he gets results.
His people win Oscars.
His movies make money.

Rebecca Keegan has some great snippets
about his leadership style
in her book
The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.

“”It’s Avatar, dude,
nothing works the first time,”
read a whiteboard
in the spare Los Angeles warehouse
that served as
the sci fi film’s motion capture soundstage.
Breaking new ground
is Cameron’s raison d’être
— nothing interests this man
unless it’s hard to do.
But innovation has also become
a way of bonding his teams,
both on Avatar
and on his deep sea expeditions.
“We’re out in the wilderness
working far beyond
the borders of the known,”
Cameron says,
comparing his CG and undersea projects.
“We’re doing extraordinary things
that outsiders would not even understand.”"

Are you doing extraordinary things?

You see…
she never quit.
She took a 3 week vacation
to try out the new job.
Turns out,
she wasn’t impressed
so she went back to the old job.

A friend of mine
took a leave of absence
from her current employer
to try out a new employer
for a couple months.
Again, she wasn’t happy with her move
so she returned to her old job.

A week,
a couple months,
a year,
companies are willing
to wait for good people.

Just because you hired that good person
doesn’t mean she’ll stay.
If you want to keep her,
you need to ensure the reality lives up to the hype.

Susan Gunelius outlines
10 of the most common emotional triggers.

They are;
Fear
Guilt
Trust
Value
Belonging
Competition
Instant Gratification
Leadership
Trend-setting
and Time

Some triggers are timeless like fear.
Fear and greed has been used
to sell products
since human history began.

Others are more recent like instant gratification
yet aren’t any less effective.

EVERY marketing message
should appeal to emotion.

One of the brilliant suggestions
is to locate your business
next door to your biggest customer.

“Joel Ronning leaned on
a $40,000 credit card loan
to launch Tech Squared,
supplier of computer parts.
He located his office
next to his principal vendor’s warehouse.
That way he could ship
the morning’s orders
on the same day
without having to carry loads of inventory.”

There are more benefits
to being next door to your biggest customer.
When I was working at one of the big Cola companies,
our can supplier had a location next to the plant
we tested all our R&D at.
We’d often call them in for consultation
on packaging
which, of course, gave them
a clear advantage when bidding for the new business.

Location IS important.
Leverage it as best you can.

I’m not going to talk that gloom and doom.
Why?

Because I’ve never seen change
as a bad thing.
Yes, the rules of the game are changing.
Yes, those sticking to the old rules
will be hurt by this change.

But lets face it,
you and I are entrepreneurs.
We aren’t playing by the old rules.
We’re playing by the new rules
(and sometimes no rules at all).

We are small.
We are flexible.
We can play by one set of rules
this morning
and another set this evening.
Heck, we’ll play by any set of rules
allowing us to win.

And there WILL be winners,
likely as many winners as there are losers.
It is up to us
to decide which we’ll be.

It is a funnel
because in order to get one sale,
you need many, many prospects.
In other words,
you’ll get more rejections
than you do sales.

And the funnel helps you
maintain the optimism
you need
in order to sell.

For example…
Last week
I received a rejection
on one of my manuscripts.
One of my manuscripts
went to the next level of consideration.
One of my manuscripts
was contracted.
I had even more stories submitted.

If I had only the first story
in the funnel,
the rejection would have hit me hard.
I would have moaned and groaned
and wasted precious writing time.

As I had many stories in the funnel,
I shrugged the rejection off.
I was able to maintain the optimism
I need to write happy, happy love stories.

Is your sales funnel full?
Are you nurturing new leads?

She debated whether she should send
the partials to both,
worrying that she’d waste one agent’s time.
(Yes, yes, we convinced her to send to both)

This is a very… well… female reaction.
We pride ourselves on being nice,
on thinking of others.

Really, what we are doing
is making decisions for others.

By only submitting to one agent,
my friend has made the decision
not to allow the other agent access to her work.
The other agent can’t even negotiate
to represent her.

She has also decided
that the preferred agent will be so blown away
by her manuscript,
she’ll offer immediate representation.

That’s pretty damn arrogant.

I try not to intentionally harm others
in my pursuit of success
but I let people decide for themselves
what is and isn’t good for them.