Yesterday’s piece talked about how useful the music business is for understanding talent, drive and luck and how the three interplay. The following letter appeared in Bob Lefsetz’ blog (I’ve asked for permission to reprint his stuff occasionally). It chronicles the early success of a band committed to making it.
As you read the letter, understand that you are seeing an example of that elusive thing that isn’t desire or passion. It’s the will to succeed, the capacity to convert hardship into opportunity, the willingness to fully utilize the resources you have in pursuit of a dream.
Ask yourself how your operation helps people find this thing in the people they hire and cultivate.
When employers speak of finding passionate employees, they’re usually looking for people who will work for a discount. If you really love your work, you’ll do it for love and not money, or so the thinking goes. If you don’t think this is true, ask anyone who is on the passion bandwagon whether or not they pay extra for passion. They don’t. Ever.
Yesterday, we took a look at the difference between talent and desire. The crazy level of emphasis on talent is distorting sound business practice. There’s something big missing from the conversation. The desire to succeed always produces superior work where talent is simply a question of potential.
Astonishing work is rarely a question of the best. It’s never a question of the greatest talent. It’s always a matter of the greatest desire.
Desire trumps talent.
Every time.
Read The Weekly HRExaminer v1.36 Now Feature: Social Media Relationships Towards what end are Social Media Relationships evolving? How much time & effort does it takes to build & maintain these relationships & what are the rewards for doing so? One thing is for sure, we’re learning along with you. This week we share our […]
there are two aspects of online network relationships; the shared thing among members of a group or list and the value received from being on the list. The idea, when you are building an audience, is to have the two merge so that the value comes from being on the list. But, that takes significant and, more importantly, competent, investment.
There is no reliable set of terminology to describe or measure the structure, content or value of your social media experiments and the assets that result. Most effective practitioners realize that social value is something like fresh produce. It has a shelf life. You have to build and harvest value in a manner that resembles grocery store inventory management.
We’re all learning about this stuff together. Here are five links (and a bonus) to help clarify your thoughts on value in social media.
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When new publishing and advertising technology takes root, the early adopters appear to have (and in some ways actually do have) more influence and authority than might otherwise be accorded them. Prowess with new technology can seem like subject matter expertise. Learning to tell the difference between publishing skills and functional utility is one of the new frontiers of literacy.
Here at the dawn of the communications era, we are just beginning to learn to distinguish between friendship and advertising; between relationships and connections; between being a spam target and being valued; between a network and a mailing list; between your pipeline and my community.
Relationships My birthday was last week. Over the past couple of years, I’ve come to expect to see a number of nice messages from friends and acquaintances in email and on the various social media sites. I wasn’t disappointed. As I’ve gotten used to having slices of my life play out in public, I’ve developed […]
Read The Weekly HRExaminer v1.35 Now Feature: Bret Starr Top 100 Influencer For a guy named Starr, it’s hard to imagine a better place to be from than Texas. Like the country he’s from, Bret Starr is unapologetic about calling bullshit on the pablum that serves as marketing these days and he’s quick to point […]
It’s pretty obviously a vendor-centric response to the concerns we heard expressed by HR Execs in the “SaaS Revolt” piece. Vendors rarely understand (in a visceral way) the real costs of ownership of a piece of technology. While vendors focus on the price tag at the point of acquisition, customers live with the implications of design and development in painful, moment to moment daily interaction with the system. The loudest complaint, that SaaS delivers unfettered change across the customer base, is overlooked. In fact, Colin does the standard “It’s not a bug it’s a feature” dance that vendors learn in their formative years. Customers can’t just “go to Subway” once the contract is in place.
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