Masonry Magazine August 2002 Page. 48
Viewing risk as another business TOOL
But it all sounds so...risky! Exactly! Otherwise it wouldn't be called risk. Do some risks fail? Yes. Is any risk fool-proof? No. Could there be potentially serious consequence, financial or otherwise, if the risk we take goes wrong? Of course, but I have found that it's generally not as bad as one thinks. Office overhead aside, sometimes all you've invested is enough to cover ink and paper. But always remember, assuming we're taking a calculated business risk to ultimately enhance revenue, the reward you reap (if successful) will be much greater due to sheer innovation and freshness than the old wagon-jumping technique.
Now of course I'm not advocating rushing into risky ventures blindly and naively. There are steps you can take to greatly improve your chances. While a risk will never be a sure thing, it can be a surer thing.
One method to this end, as mundane as it sounds, is simple persistence, good 'ol American stick-to-it-ivnus. Ideas are wonderful, but you can't just simply unleash an idea on the world and expect new consumers to beat a path to your door. The idea needs to be nurtured and built upon even when it doesn't appear to be a rocketing success.
Success in business has always been more about perseverance than genius.
We're back to having faith in your ability. Success in business (and life for that matter) has always been more about perseverance than genius. This means believing in yourself and your decisions long after the initial "yahoo-damn-the-torpedoes" emotion in the beginning.
Thomas Edison wasn't that much smarter than his contemporaries; he simply tried harder, had better discipline, and carried all the way through with his ideas. I feel the same about Bell, Howe, and Franklin.
We all have plans, schemes and ideas we've concocted over our lifetimes. It's the execution of those ideas and persevering when things aren't going well that separates the winners and also-rans.
When failing isn't failing
HUMANS DON'T LIKE TO FAIL. Although it may not seem so at the time, that "failed" risk you just took may not have been such a failure after all. In fact, you may be closer to your goal then ever and not know it. I'd submit that many events in the past, at the time viewed as failures, were not only not failures but also actually remarkably (though perhaps unknowingly) effective promotional vehicles.
A classic example of this is with actress/singer/Miss America Vanessa Williams. We all know the story of how Ms. William's Miss America scandal seemed destined to plunge her into eternal ostracism. But she remained confident in herself. She fought through the criticism and uncertainty that most certainly accompanied it. And she persevered.
She learned from her experience and moved forward. Lo and behold, time went on and public memory and wrath softened and began melting away. Negativity faded, but the name-recognition remained. Nowadays, if you were to ask anyone at least the post-Mary-Ann-Mobley crowd-who the most successful Miss America of all time is; many would give her name.
Let's bring this back to our industry's basics. What sort of risks are we talking about? Well, every risk doesn't have to be a radical departure from previous paths. It also doesn't have to be in-your-face-screaming-from-the-rooftops assault-unless that works into your overall plan.
Sometimes a well-crafted but small departure from center is all you need. One of my favorite examples of this technique was with the soft, subtle and yet compellingly attractive marketing program launched by Apple Computers years back when they featured a simple gray-tone photo of their latest computer with the plain caption, "Introducing Lisa."
The ad was like someone whispering your name. The reader's immediate reaction was, "Who (or what) is Lisa?"
That was the hook. But there was more. Once you did understand that the ad was about a computer, there was the involuntary, inexplicably compelling mental exercise of relating the lifeless collection of circuitry, plastic and glass on the page to a living woman. This is called personification and writers use it all the time to bring life to the lifeless.
You now view the product and don't forget. Apple was getting steep competition from IBM and others with the same venerable and romantic perspective as you view the glorious sailing vessels of old which were also named for ladies.
Though advertising in its truest form-however skewed from rational thought or reality it may seem-you now correlated the Apple product to something inherently pleasant. Marketing had done their job.
I know this sounds cliché and "Dilbert-esque," but all it takes is thinking outside the box. It paid dividends for Apple and it can work for you. And the good news is that you don't have to be as large as Apple to use innovation to your advantage. Any business, large or small can benefit. But that's only if you believe in yourself.