Be like Tony.

I was cleaning out my desk this morning, sorting through the hundreds of business cards I've collected over the past year or so (yes, people do still hand them out and you should, too.) when I came across this one.

Tony Swan, who passed away last year, was a writer, driver, racer, editor, bon vivant, and curmudgeon. I'd met him early in my career when I was an intern at Car and Driver magazine but came to know him a bit better over the past few years as a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association. Some who read this blog may know that when I'm not helping companies with marketing, communications, and new product development, I write about cars for several websites including my own, Rides & Drives.

Tony was famous for many things, one was his personal motto...

"Drive fast. Take chances."

While Tony applied it to his time on the track and work at the word processor, it's easy to see how this simple phrase is crucial in business today.

The "Take chances" half of the equation is a no brainer. Business is all about risk, taking it and managing it. Without taking chances, ignoring the doubters, pursuing a novel idea, there is no progress. At some level, every decision we make requires a leap of faith no matter how many consumers we talk to or how may prototypes we test. That's where the "Drive faster" part comes in.

As the pace of change continues to accelerate, moving faster is a necessity. But it's not how just quickly you can get your product to market. Accelerating your time to profitability is crucial in a day where disrupters can enter the market from any direction and change the game seemingly overnight. That means a different way of innovating. Moving quickly with minimal investment, using MVPs to test the market, make adjustments, and move on.

This takes a clarity of vision, a commitment to strategy, decisive leadership, and an agile team. If you're mired by stages and gates, waiting for executive review committees, and fielding massive quantitative studies before making decisions, the market will pass you by.

It's time to run your business as Tony lived. Drive fast. Take chances.

A marketing miracle

By now, we've all seen this video of the amazing stunt marketing event from the Canadian Airline, WestJet.



Actually 19 million people have viewed it directly on Youtube, more on social media channels and millions upon millions have read about it thanks to all the press its garnered in just the week since it was posted.

How did they achieve such success?

Let's start with the concept. It's big. No, not just big, huge. I can barely get the shopping done for my family in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Buying Christmas gifts for 250 people in just a few hours is a massive undertaking.

It was executed perfectly.

Starting with Santa on video gathering wishes, to the army of employees who were sent to do the shopping to the decorations around the baggage carousel, they nailed every detail. It was magical from start to finish.

This effort was clearly genuine, heartfelt and relevant, promoting the company's real differentiator, service.

The result is that for less than the cost of producing a national TV commercial, WestJet was able to create international fame. This is an incredible marketing achievement that is sure to be honored at Cannes and every other advertising festival next year.

The question is, how can they take the momentum from this event and use it to build their business in the coming year? Their brand now stands for 'miracles' and they have to deliver on that promise on a regular basis, maybe not with grand stunts like this, but little gestures that demonstrate how much they care about their passengers. Otherwise, this big event is just marketing and all the energy it created will be drained as quickly as the batteries in a child's toy on Christmas morning.

I'm assuming that a company smart enough to create and execute this event knows that. So I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next.

It's not me, it's you

What Nike understands so well that few other brands understand is that it's not about them.

It's about you.



Their brand and this campaign is relevant after 25 years because it's not about their patented design, their special materials or even the sports stars that endorse their products. It's about that little voice inside of all of us that says, "Get up. Get going. Go further. Go faster." It's about our desire to reach that next level, whatever that level is for us as individuals, while acknowledging the possibility that our potential is beyond what we can even imagine today.

They found that truth about the connection between their products and their users and it became the core of their brand.

What's the truth about your customers? What do they want not from you, but from life? What makes them tick? How does your product help them achieve that? Answer those questions and you'll be on your way to creating a lasting brand.

Fail forward

Yesterday during an online conversation I was taking part in, someone asked the question to the group, "What would be the topic of your TED Talk?"

For those not familiar with TED, it is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design – and an organization that hosts conferences which feature inspiring talks by people from all walks of life. Here's a brief one from Richard St. John.



There were a lot of interesting suggestions from the altruistic, "How to harness Africa's potential" to the more educational "A history of Visual Communications."

After a little thought, I chimed in with an idea for a talk titled, "The power of failure."

I wasn't too surprised by the number of people who reacted positively to the topic. As one participant said, "I'm an expert in that myself." to which my reaction was "Every successful person is."

It's not about whether or not one fails – we all fail at one time or another in many parts of our lives – but how one handles failure that matters.

The thing I've learned most from the failures in my life (and there have been many) is that it's never as bad as you think. Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off and move forward putting whatever lesson you've learned in your bag to carry along with you on the road ahead.

Being comfortable with failure – notice I didn't say "accepting failure" – allows you to take the risks you'll ultimately need to succeed.

So even knowing that it'll probably be rejected, it's time for me to start work on that TED Talk.

The best of the web

One of the beautiful things about the web, is that amid all the dreck there are gems.

Not every blog is about how to enhance your social media presence or five ways to increase traffic to your site. 

Not every app is juvenile game designed to distract you from the important things that are happening in the world around you. 

And not every video is a 15-year old girl showing you the uh-may-zing top she got for cheap on her latest trip to the mall, or some pseudo-celebrity's masturbatory exercise in self-exploitation.

Sometimes you find things like this and you can just take pleasure the talents, passion and craftsmanship of the subject and the filmmaker.

Shaped on all Six Sides from New Canada on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

There is no safe path

You can't know everything there is to know.

You can't predict everything that must be predicted.

You can't plan for every contingency.

You can't reach your destination quickly by taking small steps.

If you want to achieve greatness, if you want to lead, if you want to change the world, sooner or later you have to leap.

The chasm is never as wide nor as deep as you believe. Success is probably closer than you think. Failure will hurt less than you imagine.

Stop worrying. Start doing.

Now

There's only one moment that matters. The one you're in right now. What you choose to do in this moment sets the course for the next moment, the moment after that and the moment after that.

So instead of worrying about what was or will be, focus on what is.

A great objective, an insightful strategy can only be achieved by taking care of what's necessary now.

Nibbled to death by ducks

The broadcast networks are worried. According to this article in the New York Times, it seems that viewers are disappearing rather than just shifting from network to network as they have in the past.

Competition changes over time. It's not always the big guy across the street who you have to worry about.

ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox have hundreds of direct competitors in the cable networks and on-demand viewing options as well as the added complexity that DVRs throw into the equation.

They are also competing with websites, smartphone apps, game consoles, books, kids activities and more. Unlike most businesses the networks don't want money from us, they want time, and there is almost unlimited competition in that space.

The networks' most difficult competitor may not be their direct competitor.

The same is true with just about every business.

Ford competes directly with Chevy, Nissan, Toyota, Chrysler and other manufacturers to sell new cars, but given that over 50% of the people in this country will never buy a new car, it could be argued that used cars are part of the competitive set.

Democrats compete with republicans for votes. But in most cases voter turn out is well below fifty percent. So the biggest competition might actually be apathy.

If you spend too much time studying "the competition," you may miss the real things that stand in the way of your success.

A nation of skeptics

It can't be done.

That's a dumb idea.
No one's ever tried that before.
Prove it.
Show me where that's been successful before.
If it's a good idea, why isn't someone else already doing it?
I don't believe you.

This world has always been – and will always be – built by people who don't listen to critics, who don't take "no" for an answer, who believe more in themselves than the voices of a thousand skeptics.

It takes a brave person to shout "yes" while everyone else is whispering "no."

Be brave.

Thought for the day

Innovation doesn't meet a need. It creates one.

Think about it.

The question is...

The quality of questions we ask determines the level of the knowledge we gain.

If you want to get more out of work, school, meetings, life; learn to ask better questions.

Indeed

In the midst of the madness that is the holiday season and the crush to wrap things up by the end of the year, the BBC reminds us that there is a lot around us to observe and enjoy.

What follows is a wonderful mash up of their brilliant cinematography, the poignant words of Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, and the voice of David Attenborough.

Enjoy.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a figment of our imaginations. It's a myth, a hope, a trap, a day that will never come.

There are thousands of hypothetical tomorrows. There is only one today.

Use it wisely.