Things come and go. They come again and they go again. Other things will come and go.
And so on.
The only aspect you can really affect is the way things impact you. A rainy day can be a disaster or an opportunity. An argument with a friend can be a deal-breaker or a change in perspective. A rejection can get you down or give renewed energy.
You need intention when interacting with the world.
Not every cause leads to an effect. Not every effect can be immediately linked to a cause.
The fact is, we are not rational beings and we merely use reason to find an explanation to things that have already happened, to decisions that have already been made.
That’s why brands and stories have so much power. They don’t engage with reason and they leverage the most tribal and innate of our insticts.
Belonging.
If your company wants to measure brands and stories, if they want to find the thread that links brands and stories to material results, they are probably missing the whole point. And the opportunity to establish relationships with employees, customers, stakeholders that can determine long-term competitive advantage.
You got to have faith not to miss this opportunity.
Recruitment is customer service.
For many employees, their first contact with your organisation is via your recruitment function. For most people, the only interaction with your organisation is with your recruitment function.
Both recruitment and customer service deal with a high volume of traffic that makes it difficult to identify what matters. And in both cases, this challenge often translates in poor service and missed opportunities.
The fact is, recruitment and customer service are windows through which people look inside the organisation. They might become employees or not, they might become customers or not. But for sure they will leave with a clear impression of what you stand for – an impression that will spread to the people with whom they will share the experience.
Recruitment and customer service are powerful tools for word-of-mouth.
It is worth investing in them with intention and strategy.
Others will never be as excited as we are about what we do. Nor will they be as committed, as ready, as present, as purposeful, as proactive, as determined.
The first thing we ought to do when we care about something is to let go of how others will relate to it.
And that’s where “do what you like” is an advice that actually makes sense. Find something that you like, something you would do no matter what. How others will react to it is then going to be a byproduct of doing that can only add to the pleasure. Even when the reaction is minimal.
Would you rather.
Learn how to cook from someone who is cooking every day or from someone who has read a book about cooking?
Hearing how to establish healthy habits from someone who has done that consistently over a long period of time or from someone who knows all the theory behind establishing healthy habits?
Take marketing lessons from someone who has successfully established marketing functions at growing companies for years or from someone who has been working at an agency for the past ten months?
Read from a start-up who has just raised €500M or from a start-up who is celebrating their 1,000 followers on Twitter?
There are two lessons here.
First, be mindful about who is advising you.
And second, the safer choice between adding some more knowledge and starting to do the work is the latter.
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