Saturday, April 08, 2006
Never say "No"
Step 7. Never say "No"
Early in my journey towards gurudom I chose the path of "Yes". Yes to everything - the opportunity to speak at a conference, the chance to meet important people, the chance to help people who could help me in no specific way, then or later. It was always fun.
One day I received a call from a bloke I knew from college who was editing a trade mag. He was looking to find an editor for another trade mag, called Marketing World. He knew I had written some articles for other marketing mags and for the Financial Review. I was on his list of one.
Now I'd never edited anything. Didn't know the first thing about it. WHen he said, "Can you do it?" I said "Yes!" and hung up the phone. I then rang half a dozen editors I knew and asked them all the same question: "How do you do it?" Each one gave me one good point. Put them all together and I had a 6 point plan. I wrote a proposal for revamping the magazine (it was pretty shitty and the publisher didn't have a clue, as it turned out) and I had the job. I low-balled the money to get in, became indispensabled, and then ratcheted it up, but never too high as to be a problem.
Now gurus need a platform. My friend and fellow guru Deepak Chopra*, the guru's guru, travels to be with his followers (the mountain coming to the mountaineers) and keeps an endless stream of books which recycle and restate and reinterpret and renovate, reiterate, refresh and reignite revenue streams for his ideas which aren't really his ideas. He's an interpreter of realities, a spiritual tourist guide. He's the best.
I had my platform delivered to me. Marketing World became Marketing Magazine, then Marketing and eBusiness (when a couple of flips took over) then back to Marketing Magazine. Twenty years later my column still appears up front, dripping gravity and guruvity.
Never say "No".
*Notice how we New Age gurus leverage off each other, like geese flying in formation? Better than sled dogs, where it is only the lead dog who gets the best view. ¶ 1:55 PM
Early in my journey towards gurudom I chose the path of "Yes". Yes to everything - the opportunity to speak at a conference, the chance to meet important people, the chance to help people who could help me in no specific way, then or later. It was always fun.
One day I received a call from a bloke I knew from college who was editing a trade mag. He was looking to find an editor for another trade mag, called Marketing World. He knew I had written some articles for other marketing mags and for the Financial Review. I was on his list of one.
Now I'd never edited anything. Didn't know the first thing about it. WHen he said, "Can you do it?" I said "Yes!" and hung up the phone. I then rang half a dozen editors I knew and asked them all the same question: "How do you do it?" Each one gave me one good point. Put them all together and I had a 6 point plan. I wrote a proposal for revamping the magazine (it was pretty shitty and the publisher didn't have a clue, as it turned out) and I had the job. I low-balled the money to get in, became indispensabled, and then ratcheted it up, but never too high as to be a problem.
Now gurus need a platform. My friend and fellow guru Deepak Chopra*, the guru's guru, travels to be with his followers (the mountain coming to the mountaineers) and keeps an endless stream of books which recycle and restate and reinterpret and renovate, reiterate, refresh and reignite revenue streams for his ideas which aren't really his ideas. He's an interpreter of realities, a spiritual tourist guide. He's the best.
I had my platform delivered to me. Marketing World became Marketing Magazine, then Marketing and eBusiness (when a couple of flips took over) then back to Marketing Magazine. Twenty years later my column still appears up front, dripping gravity and guruvity.
Never say "No".
*Notice how we New Age gurus leverage off each other, like geese flying in formation? Better than sled dogs, where it is only the lead dog who gets the best view. ¶ 1:55 PM
