Grow small
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) “What’s true and what’s real are not necessarily the same.” —Elliott Gould
It is a mistake to believe that everything must grow larger in your life and career.
We’re conditioned into this belief by a variety of measures of success: larger pay, greater responsibilities, tougher challenges to solve, gaining a greater number of clients, and so on.
Many of these are helpful. But beware.
At the root of those expectations and demand for greater reward is the self—your ego. It grows too. Relentlessly.
In creative enterprises, there are two dangers of leaving your ego unchecked.
The first danger is one that philosophers have been warning us about for thousands of years. The more focused you are on the self, the more likely you are to believe that what you desire is owed to you. The deeper that belief, the more likely you are to have your judgement clouded. And the less likely you are to challenge your assumptions (http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=29f18b6aaa) about how things really are in the world.
That’s a recipe for a whole lot of unhappiness, including fear-based (http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=a8f2d936e1) decision making.
The second danger is one that smart marketers talk about often: the more you are talking about yourself, the less you are talking about your customer.
You don’t have to look too hard to find examples of this mistake: webcopy for small- and medium-sized businesses is typically overflowing with “we” and “our” based descriptions of their product or service.
No one is immune to this.
People are prone to talk about themselves first, wrongly assuming others are waiting breathlessly for an answer to the question “who are you?”
But that’s just the ego talking. Answering that question should be reserved only for self-actualization (much needed by all, but a separate exercise).
What your customer really wants to know is this: what can you offer me to help solve a problem I have? The answer to that question is very different. It puts “you” in the backseat and puts your customer’s needs first.
Grow your business and your skills. But do so while making the self small.
Very best, Patrick
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