“Three stories from my life.” Began Steve Jobs at the 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech. Inspirational then. Still inspirational and relevant today.

“You can only connect the dots looking backward”… “You have to trust that your dots will connect in the future.”

“You’ve got to find what you love”… “Keep looking. Don’t settle.”

“Death is the single best invention of life”… “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (14:34)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech: Still Inspirational

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Wise words from an ad copy described in the book Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy.

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s records.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now – what was it you wanted to sell me?

Today’s customer is tough and knowledgeable. With the Internet as a tool, anyone can easily Google his/her way to a piece of information, an answer or a list of comparison. For this reason marketing and sales must work hand in hand to develop spot-on and effective strategies and messages for your products and services. From the customer’s or prospect’s point of view, there is only one entity: the company. Not the sales department, not the marketing department.

If marketing and sales just collaborate to develop message to address the I don’t knows, then we’ll be more than half way there.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Take Care of the I Don’t Knows

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Whatever your passion is in your personal and work life, professional tools and skills are an important and critical element for success. We often think of carpenters and plumbers or even doctors and lawyers as requiring the right tools and skills to do their jobs right. Well think again. We all need them, whatever our professions. Communication. Negotiation. Relationship. Interpersonal. Time management. Marketing. Sales. Each of us must possess an effective set of our own Tools For Life in our back pocket.

I just got a good friend and colleague of mine, Tom Bartley, started writing his own blog called Tools For Life. Tom always seems to have lots of things to share, and he’s one of those guys who can talk your ears off, in a good way. Professionally, Tom possesses a wealth of information in the energy, environmental, transportation and high tech fields and is a problem solver. He’s a result-oriented professional always looking for innovative and new ideas to overcome obstacles, while stimulating creative thinking and inventive solutions in people around him. But in life in general, Tom can also give you tidbits and nuggets of wisdoms from interesting points of view and from his substantial knowledge of how work and life actually work, or should work, either separately or together.

What do you consider some of the most important tools or skills necessary to succeed in work and in life? I’d bet that if we make our own lists, we’d find that those in the “work” column would be just as applicable in the “life” column.

As marketers, we should keep our skills, tools and knowledge sharpened in both our work and life, because oftentimes they are one and the same. If not, we’re setting ourselves up with a formula for failure.

Do you have a favorite tool or skill you find critical to success in both your work and life?
If you have to pick just 3 to fully develop for maximum effectiveness, what would they be?
On the other hand, what would be a critical tool/skill that you wish you have or had developed?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

A Sure Formula for Failure: Going Through Life Without a Good Set of Tools For Life.

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Here’s something I like from reading Paul Barsch today:

“Life, including business, is a series of choices. Read much, ask questions, and spend the time to do the analysis. Then choose wisely. Flying by the seat of your pants and making choices haphazardly without the facts or reviewing all the angles is a recipe for much heartache.”

See this full article “Marketing Champion Focused on Customer Analytics: Q&A With Paul Barsch, Marketing Director of Teradata” by Roy Young over at MarketingProfs.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Flying by the seat of your pants…

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