Bumper Sticker Culture II

I'm enjoying Bumper Sticker Week--what, you didn't know it was Bumper Sticker Week? Sure it is. [Bumper-sticker I]

Anyway, BSW, and several conversations with Jon at Business Evolutionist have got me examining the stream of words that make up this blog. It seems there's a consistent theme:

[You are] the change you want to see in the world.

Goofy huh? Nah. It's really as simple as that. If you decide that change is what you want, you set out to make it happen. You go through walls to make it happen. You use whatever you find along the way. Materials, and allies. Mostly, because you want, not because you need. Mostly, because you believe. Pure. And simple.

That's not news is it? And it's not what we want to hear. Sounds too simple. Where's the plan? "Where are your bullet points?"

And that's just it. "My" bullet points are mine. You have to craft your own. From what you know and believe to be true: What you want, what you can do, who else wants it, and why they should care. We refine our own ideas about the way things ought to be. And then, we each help our customer discover their own unique set of bullet points, a process made easier thanks to the knowledge we gained in searching out and refining our own. We repeat for others what we've legitimately done for ourselves. Otherwise, we're just playing doctor, aren't we?

I recently got an email from a fellow blogger interested in how my company does what it does. You know what? What my company does, how and why, as well as more than a few examples of the work product, the result... they're all here, going all the way back through the archives to October of last year. Sure we have a process, but that could change tomorrow. What we have, what we share, what we recreate for others is a sensibility. Of possibility. That is constant.

If assigned the task, someone could reasonably go though even only the linked stuff to the right, and intuit and assemble a fair facsimile of a business approach that yields stuff like this:



[click to enlarge in popup]
On the blog, one can find ads we've done, spaces we've designed, advice we've gotten paid to give, holes we've dug clients out of, speeches made, and most important, a fair representation of the kinds of attitudes and personalities you'd be dealing with. We've laid it all out. Well, almost all. And don't wonder that we didn't talk long and hard about doing so. My argument amongst my partners was that we should share to build our brand. Their prerequisite was that we would not chop it up, ladle it onto a plate, and spoon feed it. At least not for free. Worked for me. Seems to work for a few others.

We're firm believers in the 80/20 rule here and I've noticed Pareto poking his head up in our visitor makeup. Our stats show there are repeat visitors, and they repeat a lot. Some might call them heavy users. Not me, I call them fellow explorers. I know, sounds cheesy? I don't care. You are probably not one of them. And that's fine. Probably a sensible approach too. The world needs it's sensible people. It's just not something we particularly exalt around here. We can't. It would have killed every idea we're known for. It would stop the phone ringing. People call for our passion and curiosity and humility and confidence. They've seen it in action. Their friends told them to call. They want to hire it, maybe learn it. I'm glad.

An example: A very kind visitor took note of a recent post

Man on Fire

Check out ... "Burning Desires." In it, he riffs on the responsbilities assigned to us not only as writers, but readers as well....It set me right on my tail with its message to both ends of the reader-writer spectrum. On fire, indeed!

Michele, thanks again. Your check's in the mail.

Seriously, I wonder what Michele's return on investment would have been after reading the same post, rendered in bulletese?

• There are lots of books out there.
• Most say the same things.
• Some are kindling, some light the match.
• Pick one that lights your fire.
• Ask why it does
• Remember the fire, burn the books.
• Now go do business.

There's a great line in "The Hunt For Red October." Maybe you remember it. Jack Ryan, looking at a radar screen, asks "What are those destroyers doing?" The Captain says "They're listening with sonar, looking for the Red October. Funny thing though--they're moving so fast, they could run over my daughter's stereo and not catch it."

They're listening. But moving fast. So they can't hear.

Do I really want to burn books? Of course not. Not unless that action generates a further and useful higher-value reaction. Hey, I'd burn my merit badges if it served a higher purpose. They're both just things. But the knowledge I gained reading the books, earning the merit badges, taking factory tours, or asking questions I had no right to ask is still with me, pooled up in my head, intermingling and generating new combinations everyday. That's the key. Facts are just kindling, you have to rub them together to get heat. If you don't feel friction, you're not doing it vigorously enough. Rub them together to generate new facts and better questions. And you can't be miserly about it. There's always more kindling or more resources or more opportunities to be found.

But still, we hoard them. We presume and prejudge. We want others to package them. Because we don't believe. In our power to create. In ourselves.

But, we believe in bullets. Now that is goofy. Big mistake.

---

Bumper-sticker I