Sep 26 2009
BACK TO THE FUTURE…
Are You Ahead Of Your Time?
As a fledgling and occasionally sarcastic business professor in 1974, I made two predictions to my marketing students:
1) The day will come when some opportunistic HBA (Health & Beauty Aids) company (aren’t they all?) posing as a pharmaceutical firm (don’t they all?) will launch a big new product splash into the marketplace, announcing the revolutionary new “BEHIND THE KNEES DEODORANT AND ANTI-PERSPIRANT” for those embarrassing odors associated with leg draping over the edge of a seat while sitting (imagine the booming market for drivers!). Okay, hasn’t happened yet, but — as they say at the NY Lottery — “Hey! Ya’Neva know!”
2) The day will also come when we will all have microchips (which only barely existed then and, those that did, probably held 10 pages worth and were maybe the size of a half-dollar) embedded in our foreheads that will allow us to tune-in to any TV or radio station, play any album (33’s and 8-tracks at that time) and call or answer any call — without a phone — by simply thinking of the person or organization we wanted contact with. Uh, this too hasn’t yet happened … yet … but …
Truth is that if you’re thinking about stuff like this, I hope you are either an independently wealthy entrepreneur, a scientist being paid to drum up challenges for some corporate R&D department, or a sicko mental case.
Being ahead of your time is a waste of time. It is also like a tip-toe through Disneyland because it is mega-fantasy … because it is not here, now; so it is not reality.
Excursions into fantasyland can occasionally be helpful — as in underscoring a point with a class full of marketing students. But if you’re running a business, run the business!
The farther you drift away from what’s right in front of your face on a day-to-day basis, the farther your bottom line will drift away. And with today’s econ… got the drift?
Pay attention to the customer, the employee, the referrer, the supplier who is looking at you, speaking with you, emailing you, Twittering you right this minute! Success is the journey, not the destination!
Don’t stop dreaming, just save it for when you go to bed!
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Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below. Thanks for visiting.
Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!