You’ve probably seen those thirty-minute, late-night television infomercials that tell you a story about a product in all its glory.
After about twenty minutes into the commercial, you have been repeatedly told that your life is incomplete without this latest gizmo. You’ve heard others enthusiastically state how the item changed their lives and brought them health, wealth, happiness, and love.
Strangely, it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s a vegetable juicer, a home fitness implement that fits within a doorframe, a diet system, or a miraculously absorbent towel from Germany. Suddenly, you start to feel the gap in your life!
You start wondering – how much does this gizmo cost?
Well, the marketers have anticipated your question. But they won’t tell you the answer just yet—no, let’s hear another testimonial first.
Even after that, they won’t divulge the actual price right away. If they give away the actual price at that point, you may think it’s too high. So, the strategy is to reveal the price and make you feel lucky when you finally hear it. It goes something like this:
“Let me tell you. Typically, items like this one sell for six hundred dollars or more. However, today we’re offering you a very special deal. We’re not going to sell this for six hundred dollars.”
“At three hundred dollars, it’d be a steal. But that’s not what we’re going to sell it for.”
“At one hundred dollars, you’d see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“Today, it’s only ninety-seven dollars. This introductory offer applies to just the first thousand orders. We still have 390 items left. So call now!”
You are thinking that this may be your chance to be in the “exclusive” club of people who will own this for a song. Compared to $600, $97 looks like a steal.
As you are thinking about it, there is an announcement.
“Wait, here is a special deal. If you call in the next ten minutes, we want to offer you one extra gizmo for free. You buy one and you get one for free. You can give this extra gizmo to a friend or your colleague. Do whatever you want but call in the next ten minutes. Operators are standing by. Please call now.”
That nails it.
In the first twenty minutes, you are convinced that you really need this gizmo.
In the next five minutes, you have been “educated” on the value of the object. Prior to the infomercial, you may have had no idea of the product’s cost. But now, you have a benchmark—it’s not one you invented. It’s a contextual decision based on information provided to you by the marketers. You’ve accepted their pricing frame of reference.
In the next minute, you are convinced that if you act quickly, you might be in the exclusive club of people who can own this gizmo for a song.
In the final minutes, you are convinced to act now—so you can get something for free.
Really, they tell you – you have got to act now to get in the exclusive club.
I know, I know – you are not one of those people who will fall for this kind of gimmick. You are way smarter than that. But the fact is that these infomercials are produced with big budgets and some of them produce millions of dollars in sales.
Someone out there is falling for this marketing approach, for sure.
And if you remember, the Bernie Madoff scheme required investors to be part of the “in” network. When people see an opportunity too good to be true, they misapply their frame of reference. They want to believe. They want to act, because they fear that they will be missing a great opportunity.
Instead of asking “What if this offer were true?” maybe we should ask, “Are there some reasons that this offer isn’t as good as it seems?”
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You can check the time on your cell phone. Or you could buy a reasonably good watch for less than $100.
So, why would anyone buy a watch that is north of $2500.
Obviously not just to check the time.
So, it must be the stories that the watch makers tell about why you need to buy them.
Here are some samples (photos from the world’s largest mall in Dubai)
First, let us take Omega.
You may want to buy it because it is George Clooney’s choice.
That doesn’t cut it? OK this should do it. Omega is also Zhang Ziyi’s choice
Second, Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaeger-LaCoultre thinks you might have never really worn a real watch (that is unless you own a Jaeger-LaCoutre)
Third, Tag Heuer
They have been making watches since 1860 and have a rich history. Plus, you might want a watch that is accurate to a 1/100 of a second.
Fourth and final, Patek Phillippe
You have to look at them because it is multi-generational story. According to them, you never really “own” a watch. You just take care of them for the next generation.
You drink water when you are thirsty. But the doctors say that you need to drink at least eight glasses of water everyday to stay healthy. Most people ignore the advice and stick to drinking water only when they are thirsty. While they can ignore the advice they can’t avoid the consequences of ignoring that advice.
Drinking eight glasses of water everyday requires going out of the way – meaning you need to drink water even when you are not thirsty. Seems odd to do at first but if you get into a habit, you will get used to it.
Thirst for knowledge works the same way. You can acquire knowledge when you need it (thirsty) or you can develop a habit of acquiring it throughout your lifetime.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
Please take a moment to reflect on what you read and have a wonderful day.
A few days ago, I had a delightful dinner conversation with Mitchell Levy and Kiruba Shankar. We talked a LOT and covered many things.
A story about a “Present” shared by Mitchell totally touched my heart. Here it is in his own words.
This happened when D (Mitchell’s son) was about two years old. His Grandpa had brought D a rocking horse as a present. It was in a big cardboard box. D knew it was a present for him and he was so happy to see it. He jumped on the box quickly and started playing with his “present.”
D’s Grandpa had to explain (with great difficulty) that it was not the present and the real present was inside the box. D was not in a mood to listen anyway. After some negotiation, Grandpa finally got D away from the box and opened the box and took the rocking horse out.
D was happy to find his present. He now jumped inside the box and started playing there. Remember Grandpa had told him the present was inside the box.
Grandpa had to convince D again that the present was really “outside” the box. D came out and looked at what was outside and for him it probably looked like two wooden pieces and he was totally not interested in that. Playing inside the box was more fun.
Long story short – Grandpa fixed the rocking horse for D and it took a few more minutes of convincing and FINALLY D decided to play with his real present – the rocking horse.
Shows that sometimes the “Present” is right in front of our eyes but we can’t see it.
That’s the first question that comes to your mind when you hear a quote or anything interesting.
Think about this quote
“Stay hungry, stay foolish!”
If you didn’t know that the above quote (source: You have got to find what you love) was from Steve Jobs, you may be lost. You might think, why should I stay hungry and for God’s sake why should I stay foolish? But the moment you know this quote was from Steve Jobs, things become clear.
I love the above quote but on a lighter note, don’t take it literally
Remember that:
You cannot change people’s need to know the “Who” but you can take care of it by working on your identity.
“One of the great challenges in getting new and valuable ideas accepted is that many intended users, even those who would benefit enormously from what is being offered, spend a lot of energy and time trying to figure out who the person is behind the innovation. Until we feel comfortable that we know the answer, it’s hard for us to accept the advice, no mater how valuable it might be.”
We also have Chris Pirillo who sums this up in a tweet below.
We still have more than 10 months in this new year. So may be you can work out a plan to address the “Who” question more powerfully?
This gem from Paramahamsa Yogananda sums up what is required to build lasting relationships.
“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first… when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.”
A plane is getting hijacked and everyone on the plane is VERY scared. There is fear on everybody’s face. It is clear to them that they are not in control anymore. At one level, they were not in control anyway once they got into the plane but this was different. They signed up for it knowingly. They knew the risks before they boarded the plane. Hijack was different. They didn’t sign up for it and they didn’t want it.
Somewhere in the backseat, there is one person who seem to be not perturbed by this hijack. In fact, he is smiling and going about his work.
Do you think this is odd?
I presented this scenario in one of my recent talks and the reaction ranged from “odd” to “idiotic.” I concur.
However, when the context is changed, we all behave like that “odd” person on the plane.
Think about a typical moment in your life. It is typically “hijacked” either by your past or your future. Most of the time, you don’t notice it or behave as if there is no problem with it. The moment is taken away from you – robbed. Moment after moment disappears without you noticing or trying to escape from this hijack.
I wish there was a simple trick to snap out of this hijack and start living in the present moment. But not trying to “live in the present” is to throw away the “gift of life.”
For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you know that one of the themes on the blog is how to escape the prison of commodotization – being one of the many.
Why?
Simply because commodotization erodes value.
If you are valuable and can distinguish yourself, you can claim a premium in the marketplace.
Of course, nobody is smart to be able to permanently distinguish themselves because for anything that is getting a premium, there are others who will follow suit and compete for attention until that “anything” is commodotized and loses the early premium that marketplace awarded.
So, how does one continue to command a premium?
For starters, there are two ways:
1. Continue to accumulate valuable accomplishments – It’s easy to duplicates strategies and tactics but it’s hard to copy valuable accomplishments.
2. Continue to innovate: If you are changing the game all the time, it’s hard for someone to copy. People can copy if there are set of rules. If the set of rules keeps changing, they won’t know what to copy until they figure out a pattern. By the time they have figured out a pattern, you move on to a new game.
Ok, we are getting ahead here. The topic of the post is to discuss the “Distinguish Cycle” and to keep it simple and actionable and then build on it in the future posts.
Here is the distinguish cycle.
Think about it for a second. You can start wherever you want in the cycle and work through the other parts.
For example, you can start and move in this fashion
1. You can BE a different person to start with
2. You will SEE different things as a result of that.
3. When you SEE different things you don’t have a choice but to THINK differently.
4. When you THINK differently, you will PLAN differently.
5. When you PLAN differently, you will DO different things.
And, hence
6. If you DO different things, you will BE a different person
You can play with the cycle and you will see that you can start anywhere else and lead to the same conclusions. All parts are important and no part can be skipped.
My personal favorite is to start with THINKING differently.
How do you start that?
By rubbing shoulders with people who think differently. A few decades ago, this was hard to do. But today in the digital age, you get an opportunity to do that simply by following a set of blogs, Twitter accounts or websites.
When you are exposed to thinking that’s different, you don’t have a choice but to think different. Without your knowledge, you will set forth to transform yourself.
Once you THINK different, it’s easy to set the the distinguish cycle in motion.
Here are a few resources to trigger that much needed “THINKING”
2. SpringWise – Innovative Business Models from all over the world. (Hat Tip: Dan Pink)
3. Seth Godin – Daily dose of simply brilliant thinking
4. Innocentive – Companies looking to pay money for innovative solutions. Take a look and see what problems they are trying to solve.
5. TED Talks – Brilliant insights in less than twenty minutes
6. ChangeThis – Manifestos that you can read in less than one hour
7. THINKaha – Our own series of bite-sized books for thinking people. You will be guaranteed to get a dozen “aha-moments” in less than 30 minutes
(Disclaimer: I am the executive editor for the series)
8. Lateral Action – Where creativity and productivity intersect.
9. Meylah – Resources for creative people.
(Disclaimer again: I am a mentor to the founders)
In this short (around 2-minutes) video, one of my heroes, Tom Peters explains (with examples) why the problem is never the problem, the response to the problem is.
Totally loved the video and is embedded below for you:
Why did the 2-minute video touch my heart?
The way I look at it, the statement can be extended to many other things – such as an “opportunity.” An opportunity is not an opportunity unless you do something about it.
The trick is in “taking action” and doing something about what we are faced with. And, that is in our control.
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