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One of the TV shows presently on my DVR is The Ultimate Fighter. A show of UFC wanna be’s who for several weeks kick the crap out of each other until there is one man left standing and he is crowned the champion. I just finished watching this weeks episode which included a fight between a guy who the entire season has been talking a great deal of smack and spent the first couple of episodes barking at the other contestants, that’s right, literally barking. He faced off against a guy who had already lost once and was kicked out of the tournament, but was given what most people don’t get in life, a second chance.
So both of these guys had a huge amount to prove and after weeks of talking and chest pounding, they finally had the opportunity to show what they were made of. What happened? When the bell finally rang, they both crumbled. The fight sucked, it was boring, there was no action and neither fighter was fighting to win, they were fighting not to lose.
The reason I bring this up was that I thought this was an interesting comparison to many of the discussions we have been having here on the Hipsters when it comes to marketing. That we as marketers have been doing the same exact thing. We go out everyday and instead of trying to win for our clients, we are just trying not to lose.
It makes perfect sense. We don’t want to be criticized, we don’t want to lose our clients and we don’t want to lose our jobs. So instead of going out and swinging for the fences, everyone is playing CYA so we are not the last one standing when the music stops.
But then I think what is worse, having all those bad things I listed above happen to me or continually wondering after the fact, what if? What do you think the losing fighter on this weeks episode would give up to get those three rounds back?
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You’re right on the money Cord. And it’s not just marketers, it’s almost all business. Everyone wants to maintain the status-quo and not take a risk to do something exciting.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read Purple Cow by Seth Godin, but the whole book deals with this very subject.
Good post.
Well said Cord. A good wake up call for any field, really.
Spot on money! Ya see it takes some serious nads these day’s to play to win. We have become a very intolerant society. There is no room for error. Everyone is a Monday morning QB looking and waiting for you to screw up so they can capitalize on it. The risks are high in playing to win. The good news, if ya play to win and win, the spoils are big. Ya just gotta have the nads to do it.
We ARE a: “No one ever got fired for hiring IBM” society. No doubt!
Every a.m. I check my undies . . . an yup still playing to win.
Fantastic point. Couldn’t agree more (both about the fight and about fighting to win).
While it’s only a slight difference in perspective, it’s one important enough to make that difference entirely worth it.