Stand for something, or else.
Had my head down working on things behind the scenes. Lots to manage here, and not much time to blog.
Here’s a great post from Seth Godin this morning “When you stand for something” that everyone interested in business or creating comics should read.
He mentions that it’s hard to stand for something, because you can’t be all things to all people then. Standing for something is a great way to detect bullshit in other organizations. Seth writes:
You can’t be the low-price, high-value, wide-selection, convenient, green, all-in-one corner market. Sorry.
You also can’t be the high-ethics CEO who just this one time lets an accounting fraud slide. “Because it’s urgent.”
You can’t be the big-government-fighting, low-taxes-for-everyone, high-services-for-everyone, safety-net, pro-science, faith-based, anti-deficit candidate either.
You can’t be the work-smart, life-in-balance, available-at-all-hours, high-output, do-what-you’re-told employee.
To really stand for something, you must make difficult decisions, mostly about what you don’t do. We don’t ship products like that, we don’t stand for employees like that (”you’re fired”), we don’t fix problems like that.
It’s not easy to have these sort of principles in your mind and follow through with them. It’s easier though when you surround yourself with honest people who have the same interests and REALLY care about you, your ideas, your stories… not just about how to score the next dollar.
Back to the drawing board!
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I agree that it’s hard to stand up and to not compromise.
But, Seth Godin did not standup and actually name a few of those people, brands and organizations who actually fit his description? How about you? Who do you actually know who does not change their story for different audiences?
I’m wondering if it isn’t an idealistic model for us all to aim at becoming, but is actually an impossibility in this world today.
Thanks.
Sharon McEachern
http://www.ethicsoup.com
Sorry Sharon, but thanks to our legal system today, unless you wrap your statement in humor, or the guise of it, you leave yourself open to “lawyering up”. Even DJ here could end up with one of those “desist letters” if he wasn’t firmly attached to the comic industry and thus, able claim the humor angle. Fortunately the web has become so difficult to use legal scare tactics on, the use of lies by anyone to discredit anyone else is rampant. Those who believe everything they read on the internet are in for a great disappointment. I find trying to find some honest data on the internet to be a difficult experience at best. I constantly have to look and question the author’s “angle” on the subject.
It’s kinda like watching the VP Debate and looking for either candidate to really “answer a question”. In the end it was a long series of caned political statements with no real commitment of opinion.
The only honest pure personal statement was Palin when she said, (I paraphrase) “I may not answer the questions just the way you or Mr. Biden want to hear, but I want to -Address- the American people.”
Pardon my french… WTF??? I thought the whole idea of a debate is to engage the candidate in real discussion. If I wanted to watch a two hour political commercial, I would have drank an excessive amount of alcohol first so I could stand it!!! That is what it was thought, two political talking heads that basically made prepared political statements over and over again. ZZzzzz….