Self Knowledge Brings Happiness
Yuan Lee

Self Knowledge Brings Happiness?

The above statements, a chinese aphorism, repesented by Yuan Lee catch some people off guard...

...or lead them into answering the wrong question: Who should I be?

That's a shame, but not an irretrievable disaster. When people misinterpret a thought like Lee's, it's fairly easy to point out--often with an accompanying "Phew!"--that the question isn't "how are you inadequate?" but, rather, "What is it you really want?"

Their answers, thoughtfully arrived at, often lead to a cathartic experience--the kind of thing that leads a person like Ann Fudge to climb the ladder at Kraft/Maxwell House, rebuild a few brands, make a name for herself, and, within view of The Hall of Fame, decide she'd rather jump on a bike and shamble across Europe for a few months to recalibrate her bearings. As BusinessWeek put it,

she simply wanted to define herself by more than her professional status, considerable as it was, and financial rewards, sizable as they were. "It was definitely not dissatisfaction," says Fudge, now 52. "It was more about life."

She wanted to get reconnected with life. With what matters to people who don't spend their days tapdancing sematically through mahogany panelled rooms and playing "hide the agenda" from comfy leather chairs. Fudge now has the reins and the challenge of turning around Martin Sorrell's ailing Young & Rubicam--one of the grand brands of Advertising's own Hall of Fame.

Imagine: The leader of an organization charged with helping companies to get closer to their consumers. Their task? To put a metaphorical arm around the shoulder of those consumers and ask the questions: "Who are you?" "How are you doing?" "How can we help? What do you need?"

And that leader is greeted with this, again from BusinessWeek:

A surprising number doubt -- quietly for now, anyway -- that a woman who openly hugs fellow execs and values her life beyond the workplace can raise Y&R to new creative and financial heights. As one senior executive puts it: "I just don't know if someone who can spend months on a bicycle has the 24/7 drive we need."

Months on a bicycle. 24/7 drive. Hmmm. Perhaps he should ask Lance Armstrong that question.

Amazingly, that guy gets paid hundreds of thousands a year to be that obtuse. And so you see the challenge of Lee's misinterpreted question... Self-knowledge requires REAL exploration. Exploration makes many mediocrities nervous. Self-knowledge leads to self assurance and, more often than not, precludes one from so ridiculously inserting foot in one's mouth. Self-knowledge requires a willingness to admit what you REALLY want and are and will sacrifce for, not some executive locker room-speak that means nothing once the echo of the words have faded. It's also a syndrome of the vacuousness common to companies in search of their identity. They ask: Who do we want people (consumers and employees) to think we are? rather than, Who are are we really, and who else outside these walls shares our care?

I posted here recently about the "playing doctor" aspect that many marketers bring to their work...

...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?

Well?

Yes. We are. And we know it. And our clients know it. Therefore, given that choice, if somebody's going to practice without a license, they trust themselves with their own health more than they trust us. So they opt to self-diagnose and ask us to execute or perhaps tinker with their already half-formed idea of who they think they should be--because they don't trust us to tell them who they really are.

Sufficiently depressed? Don't be. The same turf we all explore between a client company and its customers to find common ground and future purpose simply needs to be tilled between ourselves and the clients we serve too. Naturally, we start with ourselves and then go searching for mates. So, without futher ado, what are the kinds of questions and answers that allow us to know US better?

• What do you still believe in but have given up fighting for?
• What are you still willing to fight for?
• Name the 5 most significant events in your life so far.
• Describe your most recent customer service experience, with you as the customer.
• Name one piece of advice somebody gave you that regret not taking.
• Name one risk you took that you're glad you did.
• Name the last election you voted in.
• Describe the last advertisement you remember. The first.
• Name your hero(es). Why?
• Tell us your favorite joke.
• Name of 1st love?
• In the 5th grade, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• In the 11th grade, what do you put in the space "Career: ______" on your SAT form?
• 2 years into your first "real" job what had you learned about "work"? Unlearned?
• If your specific industry disappeared tomorrow, what else would you be able to do or work at?
• If a rich aunt left you $100,000,000 tomorrow, what would you be doing a year from now?

Now, from those answers you begin to get a snaphot of where you end, where your consumers begin, and where you can leverage and increase the common ground between.

This is "Brand US" territory. It's a good place to be.