Michael Doornbos Just your average evil genius

What do you mean you don’t know what your customers want?

I heard a form of this at least 6 times last week:

I just don't know what my customers are having issues with.  I told them about all of these things they should be concerned about and then they stopped returning my phone calls.

What?  Really?

No one is more important than your existing customers.  They've made an investment in you.  Give back to them 10 fold.  Don't know what they want?  Ask them! I'll bet they'll tell you.

Stop selling what's on your line card, pushing your agenda, trying to get reelected, and inventing things for problems you don't even have.

• If your customers distribute HVAC or cleaning supplies, ask them what their 3 pains are in our depressed economy.  Then help them actually solve them. Don't push them whatever product you're getting a spiff on this month.  Help them change what you would change, and buy what you would buy if you were in their position.  That's not selling, that's sharing expertise.
• If you are a government agency and you need public support (I'm talking to you NASA), ask the people what they want for their kids.  Think 20 years out, not just about jobs next month.  You get support by actually being visionary, not by being a bunch of posers.
• If you sell security software, give them a solution that will actually solve their problem instead of a feature list.  If you are in the middle of the pack in your field and can't figure out why, it's probably because you sell people features, they only sorta work, and then all of your customers bad mouth you behind your back every time they get the chance (that would be what all the snickering is about).
• If you're an inventor, cracking eggs is not a major societal issue.  It's a pretend problem you've invented to basically steal $20 from people.  Coming up with a scam is hard work and takes brains.  Why don't you help people in underdeveloped countries figure out how to have clean water?

Your relationship with your customers is not about what YOU need!

People want their pains to be easier and they want to grow.  Give them both.  You start by asking them what they need.

You're an expert in what you do right?  Act like it.

Don’t wait for an expert to tell you what you already know

I spent much of my day yesterday at the doctor.  About a week ago, I pulled a tick off of my leg and now there's a rash.  Yup, Lyme disease.  Awesome.  Gave me some antibiotics and now they are going to watch me closely.

This post is not about that...

While I was waiting to be seen, a nurse came by to take my vital signs.

My blood pressure was a little high.

Not really high, but a little.  This alarmed me more than the tick bite.

As the Doctor was writing my prescription, I mentioned that my blood pressure was a little high.

"Yes, a little.  You're overweight, so that's probably part of it"

Huh.

I know I'm overweight.  I'm eating better, and swimming almost every day.  In fact, in 2010, I'm down almost 10 pounds.

But it took a doctor telling me something I already knew to REALLY put myself in gear about taking care of myself.

Why did I wait for that?  I'm a smart person.  I can look in the mirror and tell that I've got 30 pounds I don't need at all.  I have a fused spine and that 30 pounds is making my back work harder than it should.

I knew all of that, but it wasn't until a Doctor told me my blood pressure would go down if I lost 30 pounds to resolve to really change my life.

What are you waiting on some expert to tell you?

Some things are worth consulting an expert for.  My Lyme disease wasn't going to go away on it's own.  But the intelligent person in me already knew I'm not taking as good care of myself as I should.

• Does your job suck and keep you from doing what you love?
• Do you know you can make a difference in the world, but you're afraid of failure so you don't even try?
• Has it been weeks since you told your wife how much she means to you?  What about your Dad?
• Are you itching to do something that scares the crap out of you?

Don't wait for an expert to tell you what you already know you need to do.  Consult with them when necessary, but don't use the lack of one as an excuse to do nothing.

The proliferation of can’t

• You can't use your internet connection for whatever you want
• You can't tell those people how you build your rocket. I mean, my God man, what if the Europeans find out how we build rockets.  Oh the humanity!
• You can't share that video with your friends
• You can't eat that, it'll make you fat so we've made it illegal for you to buy it
• You can't install that app on your phone, it cuts into our ego.  Don't you know we're Apple you idiot?
• You can't have unlimited bandwidth on that cell phone plan, when we said unlimited we meant 5GB
• You can't explore that planet without a permit
• You can't play OUTSIDE in the neighborhood, ALONE!  You're 10, you can go outside by yourself when you're older.
• You can't collect rainwater without permission (are you freaking kidding me?)
• You can't build a rocket engine in your garage despite what you saw in that October Sky movie, what are you a damn terrorist or something?

Can't can't can't can't.

Rules don't scale.

I bought a Kind bar today because it seemed more healthy than a Snickers.  On the package it says:

• Gluten Free
• Wheat Free
• Diary Free
• Non GMO
• etc

When did we start buying things because of what's NOT in them?

How can we tell our kids to explore, invent, and innovate if they have to operate inside a strict set of rules designed to protect what we have now?  If we spend all of our energy protecting what we have now, isn't there a danger that we'll deny ourselves the future we want?

I'm a CAN kind of person.  I look for what's in things, not what's not in them.  I look for what CAN be done.  My kids are allowed to explore and take risks.

I've broken up with CAN'T.

We like to move

My wife and I are creative people.  We're creatively different  (you might say opposite) but often known as people with the ideas.  I didn't say "all the good ideas", just "ideas".

We like to change.

Your brain is wired to recognize patterns. It's very very good at it. The lazy thing for your brain to do is to recognize patterns it knows. Reinforcing those patterns.  Staying stationary, both mentally and physically is not good for creativity.

When you have new experiences, your brain creates new patterns and reconnects and rewires old ones. This is why you often have "ah ha" moments if you leave your home or office to go for a walk while pondering something. Your brain is seeing new things and it is in the mode to make new connections. If you bring your thought with you on your walk you bring it into this rewiring process.

We like to move. We like to meet new friends. We like to go to new places and try new things. We do it because we love being creative and keeping our minds in that new connections state.

This is often problematic for the relationships with our friends.  Our desire to always be on the move creates a significant barrier to long term friendships.  Lately, we've managed to reconnect with some old friends via the internet that we lost touch with because of our movement.  The Internet is great for that, but it's not quite the same as being reunited in person.

We've been in the same area now since 2002.  This is a very long time for us.  We did move across town in 2006, but it really didn't satisfy that need to move.

We've decided to spend the summer exploring what's next for us.  I'm not certain that a move is in store this year, but I do know that we are both making major changes.  Long term it might mean staying here and just traveling a significant part of the year, or it may mean picking up and moving.

Whatever happens, I do know that this summer will be a great time to explore new things and I'm really looking forward to what we might uncover.

I’d like to do something like Omni Magazine

I was looking through some old stuff I've collected over the years and found some old copies of Omni Magazine.

If you don't remember or have never seen it, it was a blend of science and science fiction in one magazine.  A place to explore ideas.  I loved it.

Publications like this just don't seem to exist these days.  Flipping through these old issues I'm struck by how optimistic it is.  There are articles like "Immortality: Live forver in a machine". When I go to a newsstand today everything is so cautious.

I'm tired of cautious.

I'd like to collaborate on something like this.  Obviously it would be done online ..  not in print and could include things like video, blogs, user feedback/forums, etc.

Anyone interested in brainstorming on this idea?