marginally subversive

Going through The Dip

The Dip is probably one of the best books that I have read so far this year.  I liked Seth Godin's way of writing - very readable.  And there's something about the way he wrote this book that every time I read it (I read it again over the weekend, by the pool, whilst recovering from a hangover) I find something new about it.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this entry from Seth Godin's entry about the winner of the BGT/Britain's Got Talent program - and how the winner overcame his own dip and pushed on to be the best.  It reminded me of Kurt Nilsen, the "World Idol" winner from sometime ago - who was criticized for his "unappealing look" but went on to become, well, the winner, besting even Kelly Clarkson from the US.

In this entry, Mr. Godin writes:

The market is a harsh critic. It's not always fair and it can be demoralizing. Fortunately for us, Paul ignored all of them until he had pushed through the Dip.

I couldn't agree more.  The market - whatever that market is [the office, the world, the 'experts', the executives, the bosses, the human resource department, the supposedly 'talent managers' in each office] - is a harsh critic.  Heck, even shareholders of a company are a harsh critic - encaging CEO to play the "results by quarter" game rather than really looking forward into the future.

But the winner just went on.  As we all should when we encounter the dip.

I have encountered my dip - and realized it was a cul-de-sac.  And that made all the difference in my career.  As I set out to carve a new niche in my life, a new path as someone beyond communications planning and consultancy, I am excited and fearful - and well, still determined and committed to do my best. 

Regardless.

 

Technorati tags: Seth Godin, Marketing, Communications, Strategies, The Dip

Bitchy Question of the Day: If you are that smart, why are you not with McKinsey and the like?

Somebody bitchy sent me this email last night:  If you are that smart, why are you not with McKinsey and the like?

Well, put it this way:  When I graduated from University, one of the big four consulting companies approached and wanted me to be a part of their team.  It was a company that everybody - from Management Engineering, Business Management, Economics, Psychology, and Organizational Development graduates - wanted to get into because "it looks good on the resume".

I refused.

Me and one of my best friends - who now holds a Ph D in Mathematics and Marketing Science - were smirking:  The measure of your being good is getting into the big four; the measure of your being great is being invited to get into the big four, having the option of saying no, and exercising that option.

So...  what was the question again?

 

 

Technorati tags: McKinsey, Accenture, Andersen, Andersen Consultnig, Deloitte, BCG, Working Life, Consulting, Career shifts, Career management, Insights on Human Behavior

del.icio.us tags: McKinsey, Accenture, Andersen, Andersen Consultnig, Deloitte, BCG, Working Life, Consulting, Career shifts, Career management, Insights on Human Behavior

The Irrationality of the Human Mind

A lot of disciplines think of the human mind as a rational creature. That the human being is rational at her core.  But are we, really?

The irrationality of the human mind is interesting: it contorts our views and our human behavior models. It distorts schemas and other things that we have in our minds of human behavior.  Yet this irrationality is also that which is perhaps at the cornerstone of our being human.

The complexity of our being human is perhaps found in our seeming irrationality.  How and why we believe in a God and in religion, in ideals that are nonetheless beyond logic and science, in goals that are beyond reason.

We try to distill this complexity by assuming rationality - an assumption that is easily questioned by the things that we observe in our daily lives. 

A good friend - on Saturday night, however, asked me via email:  Could it be that underneath our seeming irrationality is a 'pure rationality' that unfortunately, we cannot define at the moment?  Could it be that underneath the seeming drives of fulfilling desires and pleasures - which is sometimes assumed as part of the rationality of humans - is more than just that?  Could it be possible that even in the "evil of greed" lies a kernel of good - and in the "altruism" of humans lies a kernel of evil?

I have no answer.

I can only try to be rational - but in so doing, be irrational.

Is advertising, media, communications planning still a business of ideas?

Is that even the question that should be asked?  Are ideas still at the core of the businesses of advertising, media, and communications planning?

These are questions that floated in my mind as I read about Seth Godin's Blog in response to a question that was posted to him as to why he 'shares' ideas freely.  His response was classic-Seth-Godin: Simple and profound. Here was his response:

I responded that ideas are easy, doing stuff is hard.

My feeling is that the more often you create and share ideas, the better you get at it. The process of manipulating and ultimately spreading ideas improves both the quality and the quantity of what you create, at least it does for me.

I particularly liked his last two paragraphs in his post - and to a certain extent, I am guilty of having ideas but have too cowardly, scared, or perhaps, too concerned about being liked, respected, and keeping the peace that I have let them stay on in my notebook of ideas.

History is littered with inventors who had "great" ideas but kept them quiet and then poorly executed them. And history is lit up with do-ers who took ideas that were floating around in the ether and actually made something happen. In fact, just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed.

So, if you've got ideas, let them go. They're probably holding you back from the hard work of actually executing.

The last paragraph, though, I would insert one word - I would add in "exciting" after the word "hard" and before the word "work". 

Seth's Blog

Technorati tags: Marketing Communications, Ideas, Insights on Human Behavior, Management, Seth Godin, Simplicity, Ideation, Excellence, Implementation

The New Yahoo! Finance Pages: My new online toy!

I just discovered a new online toy tonight - and I spent more than four hours just trying it all out:  Yahoo!'s new finance pages.  (Well, at least they're new to me - and it says "new" on the website, so I guess it must be new. Hah!)

Anyway, I really like the way they have made the Finance pages more helpful.  For the last several weeks, I have been using Google's version - where the stock price movements were plotted against news.  It was, well, helpful - I thought it was sufficient.

Until I got to the Yahoo! finance pages.

I am into numbers - so I dove immediately into their charts and the "key statistics" summary sheets.  And was I surprised what I have been missing all along!  Google's version just simply pales in comparison to what Yahoo! has done with its finance pages.  I am in awe - simply in awe - of what I could do.

OK, granted that I won't probably use most of the technical indicators (such as the Fast and Slow Stochastics), but at least they are covering MACDs [that's Moving Average Convergence Divergence], Trailing and Forward P/E Ratios, analysts' 5year estimates (so I can calculate my PEGs), and whole lot more.  I am missing the beta, but then I guess I can check out Google for that.

Somehow, the news are still there - then again, there is more to stock movements that just the news, right?

I have tested it out on one of the stocks that I have recently been researching: Landec, which is into plastics.  It did help me feel better about what I decided to do with the stocks (buy).

Anyway, I am pretty sure that I will be using the finance pages of Yahoo! more and more. 

Now if only they could do the same with their Yahoo.Com.Sg site - can someone tell them that not everyone wants to see movies and kiddie stuff on their website?