Monthly Archives: May 2009

Quoting Cantona

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Eric Cantona, one of the most gifted footballers ever, has a new movie coming out. “Looking for Eric“. Seems shocking that anyone would turn to King Eric for advice, given his past aggressions and hot temper.

But maybe that’s how far he’s come. He was featured in the Nike commercials that ran during the 2006 World Cup (Joga Bonita). I remember sitting in a bar a few years ago in San Francisco and one of the patrons and I struck up a conversation about soccer. He stated that Cantona was the greatest player ever – it could have been the booze, but he was pretty adamant about it. (I chose Baggio as a favorite, followed very closely by Stoichkov – I’m a sucker for players with passion.)

Maybe some people put their past behind them without ever publicly acknowledging it. It seems to me that he’s a good example of this (at least, to date).

By the way, one of the best quotes I’ve heard came from King Eric after he went Bruce Lee on a fan:

When the seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much.

People Want to Belong

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I’m making my way through Seth Godin’s Tribes book (Kindle version) and realizing how visible the lessons are, even in non-marketing/business areas.

The other Sunday, I was in Brooklyn playing a game of pick-up soccer. I was the first person there and a few minutes later another guy showed up. He was knocking the ball around and I wanted to join. Not that it’s a terribly important group, but I wanted to join. Right then, it was important to me to join that group.

The other piece of the book is about leading these groups. People not only want to join groups, but they want someone to follow – someone they can somewhat agree with who will point them (collectively) in the right direction. With the pick-up game, that was easy – whoever started forming the teams and getting the fields laid out, he was our leader and we were all happy to follow (since we really wanted to play).

Quite similar to business. I remember one of my first jobs was working at a coffee shop just south of San Jose, CA. Busy coffee shop with tons of regulars. A bunch of us didn’t grasp the concept of a “club card” (ie, buy ten, get one free). The owner of the place explained to us all: people want to belong.

Funny how that hasn’t changed in 20+ years (and likely much longer than that).

Be Gracious in Winning AND Losing

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I’ve learned some good lessons over the course of 30+ years.  Family, friends, co-workers, people on the street – they’ve all shaped the way I act and react to some degree.

There are two people that have shaped the core of how I (try to) act and react.  One guy is somewhere on the West Coast, and the other is my first boss when I moved to San Francisco, who I now call my friend.

John is the master at pool, and the one thing he taught me, whether he knows it or not, is how to lose. There are many reasons why we lose at pool (or whatever). The best approach is to best understand why, ensure it won’t happen again the next time the situation arises, then move on. I take this lesson with me into every project or discussion or relationship that I come across.

For instance, today, I received a message asking to be removed from a mailing list. A tough one, since I always hope to provide a newsletter with information that is relevant to these users. This one, I lost but I was gracious in defeat.

Hi FNAME,

Thank you for your message.

Per your request, I have removed your email address from our Newsletter group.

If I can be of any assistance in the future, do let me know.

Thanks again!

I never know when they’ll need a pool partner, and it’d be great if they called on me when they did.

What Happens When No One Responds?

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Part of the fun is designing, creating, and distributing the content.  But what happens when you distribute the materials then you wait for a response – and wait, and wait, and wait – and no response comes?

Besides being incredibly frustrating, the idea that you spent a lot of time preparing a project and are expecting a response that doesn’t come can be very costly.  Sometimes it’s not your fault, but that doesn’t mean you should stop there.  The problem is, where do you start modifying the process when you don’t have any feedback?

Most of the time, we do have some feedback – it’s just tucked away in everyday operations.  Maybe it doesn’t come in response to this project but if we look back over time, we can see what works and more importantly, what doesn’t.

Internal communications, customer marketing, corporate branding – there is always some empirical evidence that we can gauge initial results from.  Maybe your audience hasn’t been all too responsive to email as the means of distribution – schedule a meeting instead.  Maybe the format doesn’t allow for quick / easy / direct feedback – try a wiki instead.

At some point, it just doesn’t work and you’ll have to go back to the drawing board and recreate the content.  Until then, take a look at what’s worked in the past.

You Don’t Have to Act, Right Now

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Information is the big winner.  If you have more of it, you are in a better position to make a more sound decision than someone who has less of it.  The stock market thrives on information.  So does the speed of the internet.

But just because you have information, doesn’t mean you have to act on it.  Or, maybe one of the options of acting on information is to not act.  Does that make sense?

Better yet, maybe the idea is that you don’t have to act on it now.  Stick it in your back pocket and save it for a time that it will make more of an impact.

It’s definitely something that is learned with each individual opportunity.  Maybe a better way to look at is not what will happen if I act on this information, but rather what will happen if I don’t act on this information, right now?