“Sir, you look even more lost in thought than usual,” I ventured, starting off the weekly conversation between myself and The Effective Detective.
The Detective turned to me slowly, and glared balefully at me before replying, “Watson, have I told you recently that your powers of sarcasm seem to be increasing weekly?”
“Perhaps, sir,” I answered.
“No matter Watson, you are correct, I am thinking about a situation recently, and I am still amazed that I needed to catch myself to avoid making an investment that would not have paid off for me,” the Detective recovered.
“Sir?”
“On a recent webinar on list building, Watson. I was so engaged by the gentleman’s content, I found myself totally prepared to invest in his program,” The Detective paused, always a signal to me to jump in with some witticism or sarcastic remark.
“There is a problem with investing in a program that you find well presented sir?”
“No Watson, there is a problem with investing in a program that while well presented is absolutely useless to our efforts at this point in time. This program, no matter how good, does not fit our current marketing efforts, and would most likely ended up as shelfware, or Google Drive ware, for all the use we would have gotten out of it. We business people love our gurus Watson. We slavishly follow them, hanging on their every word and investing in their programs as long as the budget allows. The problem is, we do not think about how this or any other program offered may fit into our strategic plan. We simply know this person is smart and successful, the very image of a ‘guru’ so to speak, and because of our ‘knowledge’ of this, we are blindly willing to follow.”
“What can be done for this – what sounds like a universal – affliction sir?” I asked, now genuinely curious.
“The answer is simple Watson, simply keep your head on. Remember what your strategy is, and evaluate every tool against your goals, and the path you have chosen to follow to reach said goals. It is easy, whilst we are in the early stages of our business or new business area, to become frustrated and begin flailing around looking for that silver bullet…”
“The silver bullet does seem to be a recurring theme, sir,” I interjected.
“Indeed, Watson. Only because it is so prevalent in so many business people’s minds. We dearly desire to be told the path to success, unfortunately, there are as many paths as there are business people following them. There truly is no right or wrong way to success, there is only your own way. The trick is to find coaches and aides that come close to your way as possible, because they can help you avoid at least some of the pitfalls that lay along your path.” The Detective finished, and looked satisfied that we had taken this subject to its logical conclusion.
“So we are free to discuss another subject sir?” I inquired carefully.
“Indeed, Watson, but we shall save that for another week,” The Detective answered, and turned back to his computer.
