The 7 Indispensable Links to Twitter Success
This is Chapter 56 of the forthcoming book, Trajectory. It is the last chapter that will be made available prior to publication later this month.
Indispensable Links to Twitter Success
There are seven indispensable links between a desire for Twitter accomplishment and actually accomplishing unbridled success — and the chain between them is only as strong as its weakest link.
As you begin any Twitter campaign, and as you work it daily, keep these seven ideas paramount in your mind.
- Tweet Substance, Not Sales: The first and foremost link to Twitter Success is that you must tweet substance and not sales. This one link – if weak – will guarantee failure. More than any other mistake, the belief that you can tweet incessantly about your products and services without diminishing otherwise useful Twitter activity is wrong-minded and foolhardy. There will be plenty of time for sales activity later when it is appropriate, but if you try to sell too early all your effort will be wasted.
- Tweet on Target: If you follow the Trajectory Formula carefully, you will have a coherent strategy in place before you begin to tweet. You will have assembled a Twitter following from your target market. And you will know precisely what they want and need. Now that you have done all these things right, the next link in the chain is to Tweet on Target. Simply stated, this means that you will tweet an engaging combination of original articles — and the recommended articles of others – that target with precision the wants and needs you have previously identified. In every case, remember that you are writing for them, not yourself.
- Tweet Copiously: Your tweets should be plentiful in number, full of thought and exuberant in expression. You can’t do that in the limited space Twitter allows, so your tweets need to be signposts, directing your followers either to full articles you have written or similar articles written by others. Forget Twitter’s genesis as a “what are you doing now” banality, and turn it into something much more. By tweeting copiously, you will set your brand apart.
- Tweet Deferentially: Your followers deserve polite respect and courtesy. The practical implication of tweeting deferentially is that, among other things, you must value their time and attention. You must provide a quantity of useful information, without deluging their Twitter stream. Since you are tweeting in large numbers, how do you avoid drowning their Twitter stream? The answer is BufferApp.com; a website that schedule’s your Tweets throughout the day. Tweeting deferentially has an added advantage. By scheduling with care, you can accommodate different subsets of your market, in different countries worldwide; expand your activities to 24 hours per day; and maximize the return on your time investment.
- Tweet Consistently: As will be discussed later in Chapter 65, consistency is perhaps the most important link in the chain of Twitter Success. Presuming that you are following all of the elements of the Trajectory Formula, doing so inconsistently will minimize if not destroy your work. Particularly during the period when you are building Critical Mass and Escape Velocity, you must be consistent. Early in the campaign you will establish your daily routine – a routine your followers will come to expect – and you must maintain it. Yes, that means working every day, at least for a period of sustained effort. The mathematically precise upward trajectory we have discussed earlier is only possible if it is undergirded by consistency.
- Tweet Systematically: At the beginning, when you are trying to remember the daily steps to take, building a Twitter following will seem arduous. At times it will be frustrating and you will wonder if all the effort is worth it. Just keep doing it — precisely the way I recommend — and soon it will become systematic. That does not mean it will ever be mindless – everything you do from now on will be professional and painstaking – but it will require less intensity and mental energy than writing blog articles, for example, and completing your daily schedule will seem relaxing by comparison.
- Tweet Tirelessly: Finally, the last link in the chain of Twitter Success is that you must be tireless. By this time, I have certainly warned you sufficiently that Social Media is simple, but it isn’t easy. It is crucial to remember that all of this effort is building very significant value into your business. Keep pushing yourself. Never give up. Every day in which you expend maximum effort, is one day less until you realize the comfort and security that tireless effort promises.
Four Success Lessons from Humpty-Dumpty
This is Chapter 10 from the forthcoming book, Trajectory.
1. Don’t Be Hard-Boiled
Humpty-Dumpty is most remembered for falling off the wall, of course, but his story has several other interesting facets that are not widely known.
Humpty-Dumpty was opinionated, pugnacious, and contemptuous of the opinions of others. To put the best spin on it, he was hard-boiled.
Humpty-Dumpty considered himself an expert on whatever was being discussed – despite the fact that he had no practical knowledge.
There is a Latin name for this type of annoying behavior – ipse dixit. If you express an opinion without practical knowledge, you might be called an ipse dixit expert.
Humpty-Dumpty was the first ipse dixit expert.
What is an Ipse Dixit Expert?
In Lewis Carroll’s book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Humpty-Dumpty has a semantic argument with Alice about the meaning of the word “glory”.
The specifics of the argument are not important – what is important is that Humpty insisted on an obviously incorrect definition for the word “glory” – and he defended that definition on the sole basis that he said so.
In other words, in his view, he was the indisputable authority on the matter, despite that fact that he was clueless.
A short passage from the book will help you understand:
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘Glory,’ ”Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.
“Of course you don’t – till I tell you,” Humpty replied.
Ipse Dixit Defined
According to the concise Oxford dictionary of current English, ipse dixit, (pronounced ip-see-dix-set), is a Latin phrase meaning he himself said it.
In today’s most common usage, the term is meant to describe a dogmatic statement that has been asserted but not proved – one that is meant to be accepted purely due to the misplaced faith in the speaker.
It is frequently used in legal proceedings to suggest that an expert witness’ opinion is no more valid than the tangible evidence he can supply to support it.
Take Away #1
Whether you are an entrepreneur, a Social Media strategist, or an outside Social Media consultant, it is very poor form to be rigid in your opinions and contemptuous of the opinions of others. Being ipse dixit – knowing everything, while knowing nothing — is the worst possible case. In your relationships with others, success will always be better served if you adopt a position of responsible malleability. You can be patient and open-minded without sacrificing something you know to be undeniably correct. Just remain flexible, courteous and attentive.
2. Make Sure Your Shell is Strong
How strong is an eggshell? It depends upon the egg, of course, but if you balance four eggs on their end, and cover them with a board to distribute the weight evenly, the resulting construct will hold a great deal of weight.
Opinions are like eggshells. Alone they are fragile, but when you amass a series of solid opinions, each reinforcing the other across a stable platform of influence, the result is powerful.
Three Rules About Opinions
I have three rules about opinions:
- Don’t express an opinion if you lack rock-solid proof.
- On the other hand, if you do have empirical evidence to support your opinion, don’t be shy. Be courteous but forthright.
- Solid opinions are like strands in a rope – the more you bundle together the stronger they are. If you have an area of undisputed expertise, expand on that expertise. Express those opinions, write articles, give speeches. The more you reinforce your valid opinions the stronger your overall reputation will be.
3. Be Wary of Soft-Boiled Eggs
Lots of eggs out there are simply underdone. They are soft-boiled. Without empirical evidence of their positions, these experts are ipse dixit.
One of the interesting problems associated with burgeoning industries like Social Media — (remember the web design industry a decade ago?) — is that during the formative years the number of ipse dixit experts who appear is directly proportional to:
- The economic potential of success, minus
- The financial cost of entry, plus
- The lack of formal credentials criteria.
Since there are no formal barometers for Social Media credentials — since the financial cost of entry is negligible; and the economic potential for success is great — the only gauge of expertise can be expressed in one word: Results. The litmus test for results, with development of a Twitter following as the target, should be as a minimum:
- 10,000 Twitter followers within 12 months, all of whom are active, targeted and engaged
- 2,000 Twitter updates on targeted subjects within the last year
- Inclusion on 500 lists
4. The Proof is in the Eating
Ever try to make an egg soufflé? Or even a sophisticated omelet? For the unpracticed hand they can be difficult concoctions. You can read a thousand recipes, devour cookbooks by the library full – but the real proof is in the eating. So it is with Social Media. There are hundreds of thousands of websites, blogs and articles about Social Media – each with their own approaches, ingredients and promises. But the only reliable proof appears when those recipes have been prepared and consumed. The proof is in the eating.
The best recipes on earth fail without salt. The best recipe for Twitter success fails without a demonstrable result – and that result (the salt) begins with the number of loyal followers.
All Trajectories are About Results
All trajectories are about results.
When NASA engineers fill the Space Shuttle with thousands of pounds of fuel, and program its systems to deliver escape velocity at precisely the right second, they are aiming for an exact spot in space, called an insertion point. When NASA hits that target they have achieved results.
When a quarterback drops back for a long pass, anticipates where the wide-receiver will be when he completes his route in the end zone, and lofts the ball high into the air, he is aiming for a precise spot in the arms of his receiver and six points on the scoreboard. When he hits that target he has achieved results.
When a young college graduate, after spending years in study to get a law degree, sets his sights on public service and then works very hard to follow his dream, he is aiming for a precise position where those dreams can come true. When the perfect position appears, he has achieved results.
In April, 2010, when I committed myself to Twitter accomplishment, I set my sights on 50,000 engaged and loyal Twitter followers. As I worked nearly 10,000 hours toward that objective, I was aiming for a business that focused on Twitter as a highly professional approach to doing business in the world economy. When I hit that target, I achieved results.
The point is this: All trajectories have a starting point and an anticipated objective – a target. It doesn’t matter what the target is — as long as it is determined through proper planning and strategy.
When you hit that target you have achieved results.
Why Does This Matter?
I have already explained in Chapter 1 why I felt compelled to build a sizable and engaged Twitter following before I had the temerity to consider myself an expert on the subject.
Today, with approaching 70,000 loyal followers, I feel comfortable with the expert moniker, at least as it applies to Twitter for business.
There are huge numbers of ipse dixit Social Media experts, who wax eloquently about, for example, Twitter’s value or lack thereof. Many of them — on the basis of the above criteria – are not qualified to have an opinion, in my view.
In a recent, widely distributed article, a professional blogger predicted the Beginning of the End for Twitter as a Social Network in 2012. This gentleman is respected within the online community, is a published author and speaker and his article was selected as a highlighted Social Media article by Alltop. I certainly wouldn’t quibble with his credentials.
I disagreed with his overall premise, of course, but I was willing to keep an open mind and listen to his arguments, so I did a little research. His reasons were interesting, but as it turned out he had a Twitter following of less than 7,000 followers after four years of effort.
This fact alone neither discredits his opinion nor makes him an ipse dixit expert — not by a long shot. But for me at least, it begs the question:
How can anyone without a substantial Twitter following have a meaningful opinion about what it’s worth to have one?
If you work on Twitter for several years without amassing a significant number of followers, it might be logical to believe that it is a failed strategy. 7,000 followers is simply not sufficient to develop Critical Mass – a mandatory component before long-term results can be realized. Further, a 7,000 member following is not large enough to achieve Escape Velocity, allowing for Twitter growth after your daily activity lessons. In short, I do not believe that is sufficient empirical evidence to form a valid opinion on the matter.
Take Away #2
As professionals, there should be a relationship between what we can say and what we can do. As John Ruskin, the prominent social thinker and philanthropist said:
“The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.”
It is reasonable and fair to express an opinion about something we have actually done – but it is disingenuous to express an opinion about something we have not done, or have done insufficiently.
Take Away #3
I am of the opinion, in agreement with the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan that:
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
Business acumen dictates that results should be determinant when assessing success or failure. Facts trump opinions every time.
The Third Billion – Women are the Next Global Economy
The Third Billion – Women are the Next Global Economy
Women in the executive workforce are finding themselves at the epicenter of a shockwave that is changing the economic world as we know it — or more correctly, as some thought they knew it.
In a recent article, Booz & Company, one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world had this to say about women in the world’s economy:
“A huge and fast-growing group of people are poised to take their place in the economic mainstream over the next decade, as producers, consumers, employees, and entrepreneurs. This group’s impact on the global economy will be at least as significant as that of China and India’s billion-plus populations. But its members have not yet attracted the level of attention they deserve.
If China and India each represent one billion emerging participants in the global marketplace, then this “third billion” is made up of women, in both developing and industrialised nations, whose economic lives have previously been stunted, underleveraged or suppressed. These women, who have been living or contributing at a subsistence level, are now entering the mainstream for the first time.” (Bold & Italics mine).
Stop for a moment and consider the breathtaking impact of these words.
This change is seismic. It is beyond historic. For those of us in the entrepreneurial ranks who have championed the interests of women for many years, it is electrifying.
More Good News
At the same time as the Booz & Company study, there emerged another piece of good news for women.
Fox Business News reported on December 21, 2011 that:
” Gender-diverse boards boast a 53% higher return on equity, as well as stronger stock market growth, as compared with companies that have mostly male representation in top positions.”
The article written by Marilyn Nagel, CEO of Watermark in San Francisco, California, went on to say:
“The reasons for such exceptional numbers in female-led companies are based on some recent statistics: Women make 85% of household purchasing decisions, and they hold 51.5% of all management and professional positions and 51% of the nation’s private wealth.” (Bold & Italics mine).
Women as Entrepreneurs – The Breakthrough
The Booz & Company study made an additional comment that portends a major entrepreneurial surge from women. They said:
“To date, the potential of women as economic players has been unrealized. The reasons became evident recently in a Booz & Company analysis of data from the International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations constituent that tracks global workforce statistics. Globally, many women could be considered “not prepared” (lacking sufficient education); others are “not enabled” (lacking support from families and communities); and a significant number are both. But as constraints are alleviated, the Third Billion’s movement into the middle class will accelerate. (Bold and Italics mine).
In my view, the upshot of this reality for women is that an increasing number of them will join the entrepreneurial ranks, and will do so with enormous impact.
The normal constraints — imposed by the lack of educational attainment and family support systems — are mitigated in the entrepreneurial environment.
There exists a winnowing process in normal corporate recruitment, based upon educational attainment; but such a filter has no place in the entrepreneurial system.
To use the ubiquitous U.S. Postal Service commercial: “If it fits, it ships.”
If an entrepreneur, (of either gender), achieves results – it is completely immaterial what level of education played a role.
As to the issues raised by a lack of family support systems, this problem has existed since the beginning of entrepreneurship — (again, for both genders) – it is nothing new.
An entrepreneur’s first and most difficult sale has always been to his or her family.
Admittedly, women have a much more difficult road in many cultures when adopting the role of prime-mover and risk-taker, but with the unparalleled levels of success being shown by women entrepreneurs – not to mention corporate CEOs and government leaders – even this shackle will soon fall off.
2012 Will Be the Year of the Woman
In Social Media, and in business generally, 2012 will be a banner year for women.
They certainly deserve it. They have earned it. In every sense, by every measure.
Over the last year it has been my honor to highlight many of their achievements and I will continue to do so. They play a major role in my forthcoming book, Trajectory.
But most important, they are truly changing the world as some thought they knew it — and it is a welcome change.
The One Secret to Winning at Twitter
This is an excerpt from Chapter 29 of the forthcoming book, Trajectory.
Consistency
Everyone has their pet theory regarding the secrets to winning at Twitter: A sudden viral explosion of popularity, increasing credibility, excellent content, engagement with followers and even dumb luck.
All of these are contributing factors, but empirical evidence suggests another, more important way to win.
If I was forced to choose just one secret to winning at Twitter, consistency would top the list.
It may not be sexy, but consistency is just another name for unadulterated hard work, applied knowledge and constant improvement.
There is no short-cut to success — you must be good at what you do, and you must do what you’re good at — consistently.
Stay in the Game
Jeff Korhan, a Social Media strategist and speaker, made an interesting comment recently. He said:
“The little secret is that blogging is not a linear game. One home run is not going to win the game. You have to keep pounding out base hits, grind out more yardage, and sink as many putts as possible.”
This is a profound observation and here’s why: Like any revolutionary game, Social Media is still in its embryonic stages and no one knows for sure how it will play out. Theories come and go — new superstars of Social Media gain prominence and then fade, new platforms make runs for stardom and then commit game-changing errors and new approaches threaten to re-invent the game altogether — but the one fundamental skill that continues winning games is consistent effort.
You must stay in the game — day after day after day after day. Acknowledging that not every swing will be a home run, or even at hit — you must learn, practice and improve until most of your times at bat get you on base.
Social Media is not a short game. It is long and tiring. There will be many times when you don’t feel enough momentum — when the bat seems too heavy, the end zone too far away or the bow string too taught — but winning means continuing to play no matter how you feel, whatever the extant circumstances.
There is a lot at stake. As you build an engaged following, they will become your fan base. When they buy their tickets by following you they will justifiably expect you to play the game at the top of your skill, rain-or-shine, every day.
Your income will depend upon coming to the park and doing your best.
At the end of the day, your statistics will tell the story.
- How many new Twitter followers, (new fans), joined your fan base today?
- How many useful tweets, (times at bat), did you chalk up?
- How many runs, (retweets), did you score?
- How many games, (new potential customers), did you win?
Stay on Target
Perhaps the most important skill to develop — and to apply every day — is the ability to stay on target.
In the same sense that hitting the bull’s-eye in archery requires a combination of the right bow, straight arrows, eye-hand coordination and keeping your eyes on the target — hitting the bull’s-eye in Social Media requires a combination of Social Media-enabled web presences, the right web tools, compelling blog content, the ability to acquire targeted followers, writing for those followers adroitly and, finally, understanding their wants and needs and providing products and services to satisfy them.
Throughout Trajectory, you will learn how to refine these skills and how to apply them with consistency.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in January, 2012. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, The Perfect Trajectory, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: January, 2012.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Aggregate Positive Exposure – Return on Involvement
Chapter 27 of the forthcoming book, Trajectory
Aggregate Positive Exposure
We are all familiar with the notion of encouraging “eyes on your website.”
Commonly this is measured by the number of visitors, and the number of times they visit.
However, in the Trajectory Formula, a much more meaningful metric is used to measure Social Media success.
It is an expanded concept I call Aggregate Positive Exposure (APEX).
APEX goes far beyond measuring visitors. It measures the aggregate amount of positive time – spent on the website by potential customers — who are actively involved with highly relevant content.
Highly relevant content, in the context of the Trajectory Formula, means articles written expressly to benefit your followers, and provided at no cost. It pointedly does not mean your product information or other sales-directed content. This metric is then compared with your perceived competition.
Why is this Important?
To understand why APEX is important, it is first necessary to take a step backward to review strategy.
There are numerous ways to monetize your Social Media efforts, but one common strategy that Trajectory argues against is traditional banner advertising on your website.
While ubiquitous on the web, you would be hard pressed to find many companies, (except of course the advertisers themselves), who are making significant revenue from this source. In some cases, in fact, advertising may soften the otherwise positive impact you are making on your followers.
Ask yourself this one simple question: Why are you building a following to begin with? Is it to attract “eyes to the website” in hopes that they will purchase whatever small, incidental products that you are displaying in other companies’ advertising?
Probably not, if you truly understand the power of Social Media.
It is more likely that you are interested in expanding your brand and building credibility with your followers, correct?
If this is true, and I believe it is axiomatic in proper Social Media implementation that this objective is the most effective and efficient, what you should really be concentrating upon is encouraging your followers to read, digest and appreciate your content.
For Social Media to work, you must cultivate a desire to help your followers, not merely to sell to them.
If you follow this simple advice, your visitors will become your friends. They will no longer be faceless numbers on a bar graph, they will be individuals — who visit repeatedly because they are involved.
Two Cautionary Notes
Before we discuss the value of APEX, it is important that you recognize two cautionary notes:
- Be aware that web analytics — the collection and complete understanding of visitor quantification and behavior on your website — is not an arcane luxury, that you can choose to ignore. It is a critical component of effective strategy. If you think you understand it, learn it better. If you don’t quite get it, study it until you do. Here is a Google explanation that will help you.
- Time on the site is not exactly a straightforward calculation. It is subject to a number of variables that can skew the results. For example, if the content is useful enough to demand attention, the length of time spent reading it is valuable to your efforts. On the other hand, if the content is boring and your visitor leaves his browser open while he gets coffee, it is less valuable. There are also purely technical issues in the way Google calculates time on the site that have an impact. If you are interested in the science, here is an exhaustive explanation from the Occam’s Razor website. The upshot is this: Use the Time on the Site calculation as a relative number, not an absolute. It is a basis for comparison only, not a stand-alone gauge of success.
The Crucial Difference — APEX by the Numbers
The reasoning behind Aggregate Positive Exposure, is that Social Media-enabled web pages should be in a category by themselves. Their strategic focus, management approach and execution methods are quite different from their sales-oriented cousins.
The intent is to encourage involvement through highly relevant content, not to directly solicit and convert sales.
Success should not be measured by product purchases or visitor impressions.
Instead, success should be measured by the aggregate amount of time the visitor spends reading, digesting and appreciating content that materially adds to his or her business objectives.
The APEX score is not reflective of immediate cash sales — it represents the current value of future sales based upon the effective involvement of a Social Media following.
By using the APEX metric properly, in a Social Media environment, the resulting value represents the broad effectiveness of all Social Media activity.
Through this approach, as illustrated by the Table below, it is possible to assign a higher value to 100 blog visitors than to either 120 e-commerce visitors or 250 visitors to the Home Page.
This Table explains the relative value of Aggregate Positive Exposure:
There are three example web pages in the calculation:
- A Home Page that is representative of typical websites, but without e-commerce or blog articles.
- A Sales page that is primarily e-commerce.
- A Blog page that is primarily articles with highly relevant content, by the above definition.
Time on Site: According to Goggle, “Time on site is one way of measuring visit quality. If visitors spend a long time visiting your site, they may be interacting extensively with it.”
Impressions: An impression is “the count of a delivered basic advertising unit from an ad distribution point,” or stated plainly, the number of views by a visitor with “eyes on the website.” Impressions are how most Web advertising is sold and the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions ( CPM ).
APEX: Visitors multiplied by the Time on the Site in minutes.
Return on Involvement
Social Media activity, no matter how you measure it, is transformative.
It changes everything about doing business online.
Traditional marketing, a staple in business for many decades, is slowly going the way of the buggy whip and it is unlikely to be missed.
Today’s businessmen and businesswomen have the opportunity to become successful, not on the backs of their customers, but rather hand-in-hand with them.
The sales process has become less about vendors and customers — and more about true partnerships where everyone wins.
When you open the door to your website, you are no longer capturing your visitors and trying to stimulate sales — you are inviting them into your business and involving them in your success.
APEX is a new metric for Social Media that monitors the intrinsic value of these new partnerships, elevating Return on Investment and transforming it into Return on Involvement.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in January, 2012. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: January, 2012.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
The “Show Me” Factor – Demonstrable Value
Please note: This is Part 1 of Chapter 26 from the forthcoming book, Trajectory.
The “Show Me” Factor
Among entrepreneurs, the most common request made to Social Media practitioners is this:
Show me how Social Media will contribute to my bottom-line.
For many of us in professional Social Media, delivering cogently upon this request has been somewhat elusive, but it shouldn’t be.
There seems to be a reluctance to answer two simple questions:
- How will Social Media deliver results?
- How will the company benefit?
If you are among those intrepid Social Media souls, battling on the front-lines to deliver immediate results, you may have been hard-pressed to respond to the “Show Me” Factor. If so, this chapter is for you.
If you are an entrepreneur, struggling mightily to have a business impact through Social Media efforts — and if tangible financial results have been slow in coming — this chapter is also for you.
Speaking as an entrepreneur myself — and after a period of sustained effort and experience with my own company’s Social Media campaigns – one fact seems inescapable:
In the end, Social Media for businesses is about building a customer base – or it should be – and that customer base has demonstrable value.
What is Demonstrable Value?
The dictionary defines demonstrable: Capable of being demonstrated or proved — obvious or apparent.
Demonstrable Value is not an official accounting term; it is a new concept that quantifies value to the company — but that does not necessarily and immediately convert to cash. It is the earliest — but most often overlooked — benefit to the company.
Demonstrable Value is:
- Value you can see and feel
- Value you can quantify
- Value that will predictably turn into cash — and that will ring the cash register in the future.
- Value that may, (based upon a current lawsuit in a California Federal Court), add to your bottom-line immediately.
Think of it as the anticipated value of future revenues — stemming from a tangible and engaged Social Media following in the present.
As can be seen in the chart on this page, while traditional ROI results at the end of the process — (after the E13 Strategy has been applied; strategy, management, execution and sales have occurred; and after the full effects of Trajectory have been realized) — demonstrable value begins to appear at the outset and gradually increases until it equals ROI.
Demonstrable value is sufficiently obvious as to be readily recognized by even the most ardent skeptic, and it is the precursor to traditional Return on Investment (ROI).
Once it predictably turns into sales and revenue, it will be expressed as Return on Investment. But even before that it will have impressive benefits.
In any case, demonstrable value – however it is accounted for – may be the yardstick by which all Social Media efforts should be initially judged.
Twitter Followers Have Demonstrable Value
Twitter followers, in particular, have demonstrable value. Such was the plaintiff’s argument in the recent PhoneDog court case in California. According to court documents, the judge refused to dispute the suggestion that the “industry standard” of $2.50 per month, should apply to every Twitter follower.
That means that a 50,000 member Twitter following could be valued at $125,000 dollars per month, or $1.5 million per year.
Not to belabor this point, but for the $2.50 monthly value to be even remotely reliable, such a financial projection relies on the fact that the followers are carefully selected, heavily engaged — and that they are interacting regularly with the brand.
Twitter followers who are bots, inactive or inappropriate to your specific market are essentially valueless. Extreme care must be taken to ensure that every follower meets these criteria, as will be explained in detail in later chapters.
We all know that you can “buy” Twitter followers on eBay for a penny apiece. The difference between these two extremes is the Social Media management, execution and sales savvy that you will leaarn in Trajectory.
Twitter is Simple, but it isn’t Easy — And it is Deeply Rewarding
The task ahead — for anyone wishing to attain massive success with Twitter — may be relatively simple, but it is in no sense easy. To amass my current Twitter following, for example, has taken well over 6,500 hours of very committed effort.
During the last 18 months, I have:
- Personally written 169 articles and published them on this website.
- Researched, selected and distributed 22,143 articles, written by others, in tweets to my loyal Twitter audience.
- Hand-picked each of my 62,811 followers.
It has been an honor to build, recognize and engage with my Twitter friends. I have learned much — and gained more — than whatever benefit they have realized from following me.
Twitter is much more than a business tool, it is an instrument for personal and professional growth.
The Trajectory Formula will teach you exactly how to build a fully engaged Twitter account of at least 50,000 followers during the next 18 months: How to plan an effective strategy, manage successfully and execute efficiently. And it will help you as you transform a lasting customer base into a huge tangible asset.
——-
This is Part 1 of a 4 part series of related articles that will be published on this website as a run-up to the publishing of Trajectory in December, 2011.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in January, 2012. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, The Perfect Trajectory, by clicking here.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: January, 2012.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Crucial Awareness: More Likely to Win
Crucial Awareness
What is one obvious difference between a long-term success and a failure?
What causes a remarkable company to become a memory long before its initial public offering?
What distinguishes an accomplished entrepreneur from a has-been?
There are as many answers to these questions as there are different circumstances, but one certainly is Crucial Awareness.
Any book or author that emphasizes success, accomplishment and rosy projections — without discussing the downsides — is doing readers a disservice.
Business is like chess; you must never concentrate on a winning offense without planning for a successful defense. If you are always thinking many moves in advance – dealing with potential missteps — you are much more likely to win.
Crucial Awareness is Not Pessimism, it is Maturity.
As entrepreneurs, we are particularly susceptible to a lack of crucial awareness.
After all, we are the prime proponents of our ideas and often find ourselves leading a charge that seems never-ending.
We are evangelists, innovators and risk takers. We are motivators and cheerleaders.
The mark of real maturity, however, is pragmatism.
Instead of losing sleep because we keep our concerns to ourselves, we need to take a common sense approach. We need to share our thoughts with those who are fighting the battle with us.
Crucial awareness is not pessimism, it is maturity.
What are the Elements of Crucial Awareness?
1. SWOT
Crucial awareness begins with S.W.O.T.
SWOT analysis is an important strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your business.
It gets a bad rap among entrepreneurs especially, who sometimes view informed realism as a negative, best provided as an afterthought and then ignored at their peril.
It is often relegated to the last pages in a Business Plan, like medical disclosures at the bottom of your TV screen during pharmaceutical ads.
This is a mistake.
It doesn’t belong in the fine print; it belongs near the center of your thought process.
A SWOT analysis must start with defining a desired end objective for your business.
Remember the earlier examples of General Patton and the Cheshire cat? The two essentials of strategy are:
- Knowing what you are trying to do, and
- Knowing where you are trying to go.
A vital corollary to these two essential steps is to recognize that there will inevitably be bumps along the way. Strategy is a journey, not a destination. It must be continuous and it must be realistic.
We have all heard entrepreneurs who insist that “we have no competition, our product is the best, and our team is invincible.” Don’t be one of them.
A common sense approach will not be seen as weakness, it will be seen as professional.
In its simplest form, a SWOT analysis must consider the following:
- Strengths: The characteristics of the business, or project team that give it an advantage over others.
- Weaknesses (or Limitations): The characteristics that place the business or team at a disadvantage relative to others.
- Opportunities: The internal and external chances to improve performance (e.g. make greater profits) in the existing and probable environment.
- Threats: The external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the team or the business.
2. R-C.A.
The second element of crucial awareness is RCA.
This is a concept of my own invention, defined as Rose-Colored Arrogance.
I have seen it many times in the behavior of entrepreneurs and even in the attitudes of hugely successful businessmen in modern industry.
I’m sure you have seen it too.
Without mentioning examples, rose-colored arrogance appears most often in businesses that have had immediate and significant successes.
The owners have seen substantial profits, meteoric growth and overblown media attention – but they then begin to believe their own PR.
They begin to view their businesses through rose-colored glasses and make arrogant mistakes.
Most often these RCA mistakes manifest themselves when the businesses begin to forget why they became successful in the first place: Meeting the wants and needs of their customers.
Here are the most common mistakes, which are crucial to avoid:
- Raising prices to increase profits – without an urgent need
- Fundamentally changing business models
- Jeopardizing the quality of products or services
- Beginning to shift marketing attention from customers to advertisers, investors or the media
- Ignoring customer complaints in the worst possible environment: Social Media, where bad news travels fast and is difficult or impossible to stop.
All of these mistakes are made when crucial awareness is discarded, or takes a back seat to a sense of invincibility.
Common sense business practices are dispensed with, as if they were no longer necessary. Nothing could be farther from reality. If anything, crucial awareness becomes more important when successes materialize than it was when failures were a real possibility.
3. Avoiding the Panic Button
At the other extreme, the third element of crucial awareness is avoiding the panic button.
It is one thing to take immediate action when such action is dictated by the circumstances. It is entirely different when such action is precipitous and unwarranted.
Pressing the panic button, when to do so is uncalled for, is one of the most disastrous mistakes a business can make.
It communicates a lack of planning and entrepreneurial immaturity.
It worries customers and agitates investors.
Instead of fostering creative solutions, it encourages a crisis mentality.
It stops momentum in its tracks and freezes crucial awareness when it is most needed.
Equanimity Under Pressure
Equanimity under pressure, on the other hand, is a crucial characteristic of successful business owners.
“It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over,” Wayne Dyer has said, “because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.”
This is sage advice.
Crucial Awareness is fundamental to real business achievement.
It is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength and resilience.
It is of paramount importance to an intelligent strategy and it will transform potential mistakes into exciting opportunities.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in January, 2012. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: January, 2012.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Steve Jobs – The True Measure of the Man
A Man of Consequence
Steve Jobs was indeed a man of consequence. He was the quintessential entrepreneur. But above all, he was remarkably human.
He has not so much left us — as he has simply walked from one room into another — through a doorway into his new future.
He was a man who worked very hard at what he loved, even if that meant an occasional failure – and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.
He believed in value and beauty.
He enjoyed his success, but he lived simply.
He was loyal – to his products, of course, but also to his family.
He treasured happiness.
He gave us many a “Wow!” moment, but in the end he saved his best “Wow!” moment for his last few words.
Without diminishing his remarkable business accomplishments, there is as much to be learned from his humanity as from his professional achievement. The true measure of a man, I believe, is not what you do but who you are.
Much has been written about this extraordinary businessman and innovator, but there exists no better tribute, no more permanent legacy, than the words spoken by his sister, Mona Simpson, at his memorial service. She delivered a poignant eulogy for her brother on October 16, 2011, at the Memorial Church of Stanford University. A novelist and a professor of English at the University of California, she captured the man as few could.
Determination and Loyalty
“When he got kicked out of Apple,” his sister said, “things were painful.”
“He told me about a dinner at which 500 Silicon Valley leaders met the then-sitting president. Steve hadn’t been invited. He was hurt but he still went to work at Next. Every single day.”
“For an innovator,” she continued, “Steve was remarkably loyal. If he loved a shirt, he’d order 10 or 100 of them. In the Palo Alto house, there are probably enough black cotton turtlenecks for everyone in this church.”
Beauty
His philosophy of aesthetics reminded her of a quote: “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
“Steve always aspired to make beautiful later,” she said.
Love
Love was at the center of Steve Jobs’ life. That is a rare characteristic for an entrepreneur of his stature.
“Steve was like a girl in the amount of time he spent talking about love,” Mona Simpson said. “Love was his supreme virtue, his god of gods. He tracked and worried about the romantic lives of the people working with him.”
“Whenever he saw a man he thought a woman might find dashing,” she recalled, “he called out, ‘Hey are you single? Do you wanna come to dinner with my sister?’ I remember when he phoned the day he met Laurene. ‘There’s this beautiful woman and she’s really smart and she has this dog and I’m going to marry her.’
When Reed was born, he began gushing and never stopped. He was a physical dad, with each of his children. He fretted over Lisa’s boyfriends and Erin’s travel and skirt lengths and Eve’s safety around the horses she adored.
None of us who attended Reed’s graduation party will ever forget the scene of Reed and Steve slow dancing.
His abiding love for Laurene sustained him. He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere. In that most important way, Steve was never ironic, never cynical, never pessimistic. I try to learn from that, still,” she explained.
Grounded
Despite his fame and fortune, Steve Jobs was grounded and attached to his family.
“Steve had been successful at a young age, and he felt that had isolated him,” Mona Simpson continued. “Most of the choices he made from the time I knew him were designed to dissolve the walls around him. A middle-class boy from Los Altos, he fell in love with a middle-class girl from New Jersey. It was important to both of them to raise Lisa, Reed, Erin and Eve as grounded, normal children. Their house didn’t intimidate with art or polish; in fact, for many of the first years I knew Steve and Lo together, dinner was served on the grass, and sometimes consisted of just one vegetable. Lots of that one vegetable — Broccoli in season, simply prepared with just the right, recently snipped herb.”
Unpretentious
Steve Jobs was unpretentious and approachable. “Even as a young millionaire,” Simpson said. “Steve always picked me up at the airport. He’d be standing there in his jeans. When a family member called him at work, his secretary Linetta answered, ‘Your dad’s in a meeting. Would you like me to interrupt him?’
“When Reed insisted on dressing up as a witch every Halloween,” she said, “Steve, Laurene, Erin and Eve all went Wiccan.”
“They once embarked on a kitchen remodel; it took years. They cooked on a hotplate in the garage. The Pixar building, under construction during the same period, finished in half the time. And that was it for the Palo Alto house. The bathrooms stayed old. But — and this was a crucial distinction — it had been a great house to start with; Steve saw to that.”
“This is not to say that he didn’t enjoy his success. He enjoyed his success a lot, just minus a few zeros. He told me how much he loved going to the Palo Alto bike store and gleefully realizing he could afford to buy the best bike there. And he did.”
Humble
“Steve was humble,” Simpson explained. “Steve liked to keep learning. Once, he told me if he’d grown up differently, he might have become a mathematician. He spoke reverently about colleges and loved walking around the Stanford campus. In the last year of his life, he studied a book of paintings by Mark Rothko, an artist he hadn’t known about before, thinking of what could inspire people on the walls of a future Apple campus.”
Whimsical
“Steve cultivated whimsy. What other C.E.O.,” Simpson asked, “knows the history of English and Chinese tea roses and has a favorite David Austin rose?”
According to Simpson, “He had surprises tucked in all his pockets. I’ll venture that Laurene will discover treats — songs he loved, a poem he cut out and put in a drawer — even after 20 years of an exceptionally close marriage. I spoke to him every other day or so, but when I opened the New York Times and saw a feature on the company’s patents; I was still surprised and delighted to see a sketch for a perfect staircase.”
“With his four children, with his wife, with all of us, Steve had a lot of fun. He treasured happiness.”
Refused to Give Up
Perhaps his sister’s memories of his final battle are the most telling. They reveal a man who would never give up, who was doggedly determined to live his life to the full, and in the end, was inspiring and joyful in his own mysterious way. His sister described it this way:
“Then, Steve became ill and we watched his life compress into a smaller circle. Once he’d loved walking through Paris. He’d discovered a small handmade soba shop in Kyoto. He downhill skied gracefully. He cross-country skied clumsily. No more.”
“Eventually, even ordinary pleasures, like a good peach, no longer appealed to him.”
“Yet, what amazed me,” she said, “and what I learned from his illness, was how much was still left after so much had been taken away.”
“I remember my brother learning to walk again,” she recalled, “with a chair. After his liver transplant, once a day he would get up on legs that seemed too thin to bear him, arms pitched to the chair back. He’d push that chair down the Memphis hospital corridor towards the nursing station and then he’d sit down on the chair, rest, turn around and walk back again. He counted his steps and, each day, pressed a little farther. Laurene got down on her knees and looked into his eyes. ‘You can do this, Steve,’ she said. His eyes widened. His lips pressed into each other.”
“He tried. He always, always tried,” his sister remembered, “and always with love at the core of that effort. He was an intensely emotional man.”
“I realized during that terrifying time,” she said, “that Steve was not enduring the pain for himself. He set destinations. His son Reed’s graduation from high school, his daughter Erin’s trip to Kyoto, the launching of a boat he was building on which he planned to take his family around the world and where he hoped he and Laurene would someday retire. Even ill, his taste, his discrimination and his judgment held. He went through 67 nurses before finding kindred spirits and then he completely trusted the three who stayed with him to the end. Tracy. Arturo. Elham.”
“One time when Steve had contracted a tenacious pneumonia his doctor forbid everything — even ice”, she remembered. “We were in a standard I.C.U. unit. Steve, who generally disliked cutting in line or dropping his own name, confessed that this once, he’d like to be treated a little specially. I told him: ‘Steve, this is special treatment.’ He leaned over to me, and said: ‘I want it to be a little more special’.”
“Intubated, when he couldn’t talk, he asked for a notepad,” she said. “He sketched devices to hold an iPad in a hospital bed. He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. And every time his wife walked into the room, I watched his smile remake itself on his face.”
“None of us knows for certain how long we’ll be here,” she said. “On Steve’s better days, even in the last year, he embarked upon projects and elicited promises from his friends at Apple to finish them. Some boat builders in the Netherlands have a gorgeous stainless steel hull ready to be covered with the finishing wood. His three daughters remain unmarried, his two youngest still girls, and he’d wanted to walk them down the aisle as he’d walked me the day of my wedding.”
“We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories”, she commented profoundly.
“I suppose it’s not quite accurate to call the death of someone who lived with cancer for years unexpected, but Steve’s death was unexpected for us. What I learned from my brother’s death was that character is essential: What he was, was how he died.”
“Tuesday morning, he called me to ask me to hurry up to Palo Alto. His tone was affectionate, dear, loving, but like someone whose luggage was already strapped onto the vehicle, who was already on the beginning of his journey, even as he was sorry, truly deeply sorry, to be leaving us. He started his farewell and I stopped him. I said, ‘Wait. I’m coming. I’m in a taxi to the airport. I’ll be there’.”
“I’m telling you now because I’m afraid you won’t make it on time, honey,” he responded.
“When I arrived, he and his Laurene were joking together like partners who’d lived and worked together every day of their lives”, she said. “He looked into his children’s eyes as if he couldn’t unlock his gaze. Until about 2 in the afternoon, his wife could rouse him, to talk to his friends from Apple. Then, after a while, it was clear that he would no longer wake to us. His breathing changed. It became severe, deliberate, purposeful. I could feel him counting his steps again, pushing farther than before.”
“This is what I learned: He was working at this, too. Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it,” she said.
“He told me, when he was saying goodbye and telling me he was sorry, so sorry we wouldn’t be able to be old together as we’d always planned, that he was going to a better place.”
“Dr. Fischer gave him a 50/50 chance of making it through the night. He made it through the night, Laurene next to him on the bed sometimes jerked up when there was a longer pause between his breaths. She and I looked at each other, then he would heave a deep breath and begin again. This had to be done. Even now, he had a stern, still handsome profile, the profile of an absolutist, a romantic. His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude. He seemed to be climbing.”
“But with that will,” she continued, “that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.”
“Steve’s final words,” she said, “hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”
My Personal Thoughts
The true measure of a man is not so much what he did while alive, but rather what he leaves behind. Some men leave behind a history of accomplishment, great deeds and monuments carved in stone. Others leave their monuments etched in the hearts of those they loved. Steve Jobs was such a man.
Some leave behind a list of inventions, patents and creative thought. Others bequeath a spark of genius that continues to ignite our thinking and appreciation for decades to come. Steve Jobs was such a man.
Some leave behind a finished story. Others depart this life in medias res. In the middle of their story. And that story continues to inspire us, urging us on to do more. Steve Jobs was such a man.
In the case of Steve Jobs that story didn’t come to an end in a hospital room; it looked above and beyond his final moments to further exploration, new questions and glorious answers. We may never know what captured his upward gaze in those last moments, but as we look backward at the essence of the man, as we chronicle his successes and empathize with his failures, and as we benefit from his fertile mind, we can share in his final words: “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
How to Achieve Escape Velocity
This concept is a vital part of the Trajectory Formula, as it appears in my forthcoming book.
Escape Velocity
In physics, escape velocity is “the speed above which an object will depart on a ballistic trajectory, and never fall back to the surface nor assume a closed orbit.”
Such an object is said to “escape” the gravity of the Earth.
To leave planet Earth, an escape velocity of 11.2 km/s (approx. 40,320 km/h or 25,000 mph) is required. The required speed is a precise and absolute requirement. 24,000 mph is insufficient.
Once escape velocity is achieved, continued energy is less important. The object’s rise will continue unabated by atmospheric friction and gravity. Advancement is effortless.
What This Can Mean for Your Business
Trajectory will help you attain escape velocity in your business. It will generate predictable thrust that leads to sales and profits. And perhaps most significantly, it will propel you beyond a higher orbit — into a self-perpetuating and lasting upward trajectory.
In the Trajectory Formula, escape velocity is the sum total of the components of the formula, added together to give your selling effort the kinetic energy required for Trajectory Selling and guaranteed success. This immensely important section of the book is purposefully left to the end. Why? Because it relies on everything that comes before it.
Think of it this way: When a rocket hurdles into space, it leaves the Earth’s gravitational force behind because the propulsion systems, avionics, aerodynamics, computer systems and a wealth of other components are acting together elegantly. Nothing is left to chance. Not a single circuit is extraneous. Every cubic inch of the vehicle is packed with applied knowledge — from Einstein’s theory to the most advanced science.
As the Space Shuttle leaves the bonds of Earth, it incorporates the dedicated efforts of countless engineers, mathematicians, computer experts and astronauts. And when its mission is concluded, its legacy remains the launching pad for the next generation of adventurers.
Hopefully, so it is with Trajectory. Nothing has been left to chance. Not a single chapter is extraneous. Every page of the book is packed with over 20 years of accumulated knowledge — from basic marketing to the cutting edge of Social Media accomplishment. When the book is published in December, it will carry with it a comprehensive formula for capturing online success. And it is my hope, that it will provide the launching pad for the next generation of online entrepreneurs.
It’s Not Your Father’s Bottle-Rocket
There are simpler ways to launch a selling effort. There are countless theories on how to sell through Social Media that will demand much less of you. There are many approaches that require less study, thought and effort.
But in one man’s humble opinion, all of these abbreviated formulas are simply bottle-rockets — offering momentary flashes of excitement, but destined to fall back unceremoniously to Earth.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Trajectory Selling – It’s Not Your Father’s Bottle-Rocket
Leaving the Bonds of Earth
This post introduces the exciting last element of the Trajectory Formula as provided in my forthcoming book.
Called Trajectory Selling, it is the hugely important and fulfilling end result of the Trajectory Formula.
It is that final powerful moment when all of the careful strategic planning, meticulous execution and precision management come together with maximum thrust.
Escape Velocity
In physics, escape velocity is “the speed above which an object will depart on a ballistic trajectory, and never fall back to the surface nor assume a closed orbit.”
Such an object is said to “escape” the gravity of the Earth.
To leave planet Earth, an escape velocity of 11.2 km/s (approx. 40,320 km/h, or 25,000 mph) is required. The required speed is a precise and absolute requirement. 24,000 mph is insufficient.
Once escape velocity is achieved, continued energy is less important. The object’s rise will continue unabated by atmospheric friction and gravity. Advancement is effortless.
What This Can Mean for Your Business
Trajectory will help you attain escape velocity in your business. It will generate predictable thrust that leads to sales and profits. And perhaps most significantly, it will propel you beyond a higher orbit — into a self-perpetuating and lasting upward trajectory.
In the Trajectory Formula, escape velocity is the sum total of the components of the formula, added together to give your selling effort the kinetic energy required for Trajectory Selling and guaranteed success. This immensely important section of the book is purposefully left to the end. Why? Because it relies on everything that comes before.
Think of it this way: When a rocket hurdles into space, it leaves the Earth’s gravitational force behind because the propulsion systems, avionics, aerodynamics, computer systems and a wealth of other components are acting together elegantly. Nothing is left to chance. Not a single circuit is extraneous. Every cubic inch of the vehicle is packed with applied knowledge — from Einstein’s theory to the most advanced science.
As the Space Shuttle leaves the bonds of Earth, it incorporates the dedicated efforts of countless engineers, mathematicians, computer experts and astronauts. And when its mission is concluded, its legacy remains the launching pad for the next generation of adventurers.
Hopefully, so it is with Trajectory. Nothing has been left to chance. Not a single chapter is extraneous. Every page of the book is packed with over 20 years of accumulated knowledge — from basic marketing to the cutting edge of Social Media accomplishment. When the book is published in December, it will carry with it a comprehensive formula for capturing online success. And it is my hope, that it will provide the launching pad for the next generation of online entrepreneurs.
It’s Not Your Father’s Bottle-Rocket
There are simpler ways to launch a selling effort. There are countless theories on how to sell through Social Media that will demand much less of you. There are many approaches that require less study, thought and effort. But in one man’s humble opinion, all of these abbreviated formulas are simply bottle-rockets — offering momentary flashes of excitement, but destined to fall back unceremoniously to Earth.
Trajectory has been a labor of love and profound respect for my readers. I have been delighted to pen the ideas that will give you what you really want and need — results and accomplishment.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Steve Jobs – In Memoriam
The Bell Tolls For All Of Us
When John Dunne penned his immortal words, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee,” he must have had men like Steve Jobs in mind.
With his tragic death the world has lost one of its true visionaries. In a way, we were all part of his family. He gave us the gift of imagination, the spark of genius and the conviction that there was always something quite amazing around the next corner.
Steve Jobs was the type of man that is truly irreplaceable. He was in a class by himself. He was more than an innovator — he was an amazing presence. He guided us all toward a changed and better life. It’s hard to imagine the world of technology without his brilliant light.
While I celebrate his remarkable life and legacy, I cannot help but feel a profound sense of loss.
If ever it was true of any man, when the bell tolls for Steve Jobs it will be tolling for all of us.
Goodbye, Steve — and Thank You.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
Trajectory Chapter 9 – Make An Irrevocable Commitment
This is a continuation of the Strategy chapter in Trajectory.
Effective Strategy Requires An Irrevocable Commitment
You may remember from the Introduction, that there are four objectives around which the Trajectory Formula is constructed.
The first three objectives dealt with honing your Twitter strategy until Critical Mass and Trajectory take over — making your strategy effective.
Objective four was to prepare you for the emergence of new technology — as strategies, tools, techniques and Social Media venues inevitably evolve.
In April, 2010, I made a strategic decision to maximize Twitter by building a highly engaged following of 50,000 individuals.
Much more than a decision, it was a rock-solid, irrevocable commitment.
I also committed myself to the notion that I would accomplish this objective alone, so that entrepreneurs like you could look at the tangible results and remain encouraged through good times and bad. This too was an irrevocable commitment.
Why Is This So Important?
Strategy is all about commitment — and if what you’re doing isn’t irrevocable, then you don’t have a strategy you have an idea.
You have a solution du jour — something that is enjoying great but possibly short-lived popularity.
Ultimately, if you don’t commit you will not succeed, because when the going gets tough you will falter. You will give up. You will be susceptible to the next big idea, whether it is in your best interest or not.
Even worse, you may allow yourself to become a hostage to the new approach, working countless hours in pursuit of a new objective before you have accomplished the last one.
One successful entrepreneur put it this way: “I’ve always wanted to treat life like I was an invading army and there was no turning back.” This is sage advice.
What Is The Take-Away From This Notion?
It is very important to remember that Trajectory is not just a book about Twitter.
It is a book about accomplishment.
It is a book about results.
It is a book about making sensible plans — and then sticking with them tenaciously.
The principles you will learn in these pages will make you agile, knowledgeable and fully prepared for whatever comes next. Importantly, they will teach you to be circumspect. They will make you heedful of circumstances and the potential consequences of every strategic decision. Hopefully, they will make you prudent. They will make you single-minded. They will make you resilient in the face of hardship and resolute in the face of change.
Ultimately, they will teach you that being prepared for whatever comes next is not a license to make ineffective and inefficient decisions or to arbitrarily abandon your plans for the next great idea.
Your Role As A Social Media Strategist
As a Social Media Strategist, you must be aggressive and knowledgeable — but you must also be discerning.
The only thing certain about change is that it is inevitable — and your role as a Social Media expert is to make recommendations that are in the current best interest of your various constituencies. Change for the sake of change may not always be the best approach.
Good examples are the sweeping changes that have taken place recently with Facebook and Google Plus. Recent industry press has been overwhelmed with commentary, pro and con, concerning these new series of developments.
In order to place these changes in the proper perspective, you must revisit the two keys to proper strategy:
- You must know what you are trying to do.
- You must know where you are trying to go.
You must know what you are trying to do. If after careful consideration, your strategy is to maximize Twitter for the benefit of your business, you must remain heavily involved with that strategy until it is accomplished. While it is easy to get sidetracked by other approaches as they mature and improve, a competent strategist will resist the urge to change until his original objective is met. Accomplishment, after all, is essential to success — and accomplishment is impossible without laser-like focus.
As the Social Media landscape changes, which it will and must, my humble suggestion is that you heed the advice of Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most successful and resilient inventors in American history.
He was a man of single-minded dedication.
During his career he was awarded over a thousand patents, but his overarching objective was to master the technology of the electric light — and to commercialize it.
He failed over 900 times before he finally achieved his original objective — but he never gave up. He never faltered.
He once remarked:
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.”
If the successful usage of Twitter is your goal — and if you made that decision using common sense — stick to it. Work long and hard.
You must know where you are trying to go. The Trajectory Formula presupposes that you are a confident and informed decision-maker. It also recognizes that you have certain qualities of leadership that will inspire others to follow you. Taken together, these two central themes demand that you maintain your ground.
Let’s face it, choosing Twitter over other available options for business growth is not the popular decision. Many knowledgeable men and women have taken another course. But I chose Twitter, and presumably you did as well or you wouldn’t be reading this book. Perhaps you are searching for answers, which is where I was before embarking on this strategy. Perhaps you have decided and need reinforcement.
Either way, chart your course and maintain it vigorously.
Look at it this way, all Social Media is in a state of flux. It is new and mostly unproven. But it is a major departure in the way marketing has always been conducted. It is refreshing and new. It is a complete paradigm shift in a marketplace that desperately needs change. By pushing its limits, by remaining confident and taking a position of leadership, you will be making business history.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
The Secret to Innovation: Looking Inside Yourself
When All Else Fails Use The Mud
What can entrepreneurs learn from the legends of the oil industry? What was the secret to their success?
The answer? Use the mud.
This was not the mud that your children track in from their play outside — but an even dirtier concoction, fashioned from materials on hand with the help of an obliging herd of cattle.
It cost absolutely nothing, but it changed America forever.
Let me explain.
Not far from Jericho Technology’s birthplace in Houston, Texas, there is a hill affectionately called Spindletop. Over 100 years ago, it was the home to grass, a few cows and not much else. Not much else, that is, except for the entrepreneurial spirit of two brothers, their unshakeable perseverance, unbroken spirits and the innovation of looking inside themselves for answers.
How to Become a Millionaire in Oil (or Anything Else)
In the early days of entrepreneurial oil exploration in Texas, there weren’t huge oil fields, major corporations and thousands of employees — often it was just a handful of determined men and a very few investors, operating on a shoestring and taking one day at a time.
After they built their ramshackle oil well and began to drill into the sandy east Texas earth, they had almost no way of predicting success or failure. In fact, with the inherent danger of explosion they couldn’t be sure if the sunset would find them dead or alive.
Expecting failure, investors would only pay entrepreneurs until they reached a depth of 1,200 feet. After that, if they hadn’t struck the proverbial black gold they were done.
The Hamill brothers, Curt and Al, were two such entrepreneurs. They and a friend manned their little well day and night, but became stuck at 400 feet. It was customary to force water into the hole, which under normal circumstances would have kept the sides intact. But this was east Texas where the earth was mostly sand and it kept falling into the bore hole and stopping their progress.
This is where the secret to innovation — looking inside yourself for answers — changed everything.
The Hamill’s were tired, broke and without any solid ideas. They had no options left. There was no one available to help them. More money was not possible — not that it would have done any good if there had been. They had no where to turn except to themselves.
Wiping the dirty sweat from his brow and gazing out over the pasture land, one of the brothers had a very simple idea. He herded a few cows into the pool of water left over from drilling, and as they stomped around they created mud. Being much thicker than water, Hamill reasoned, the mud might keep the bore hole from collapsing. After all, it might work — and using what he had on hand was free.
Much to the surprise and elation of the Hamill brothers, their simple idea appeared to work — and they happily redoubled their efforts.
They passed 500 feet, then 800 and finally 1,100, but nothing happened.
Imagine what they must have been thinking as they approached the 1,200 foot cut-off: Discouraged, anticipating failure — but somehow fulfilled.
Whatever happened, at least they knew they had tried — and they had reached inside themselves for answers, which is a huge victory in itself.
But in a few moments, with a soft rumble that became louder and louder until it shook the ground and spooked the cattle, the Hamill brothers became rich beyond their wildest dreams.
The quiet well that the day before was without hope, spewed forth a gusher of oil for days and days before they could bring it under control.
Within the next 24 hours, the investors who would have shut things down very soon, were now $40 million dollars richer.
When they had started their little enterprise, the brothers had dreamed of finding enough oil to recoup their time and trouble. They had been hoping for 50 barrels of crude oil per day — but before long, their little well was gushing 80,000 barrels per day, making the U.S. the largest oil producer in the world.
Within a year, 500 oil companies were born, including Texaco and Gulf.
As it turned out, their simple idea of using mud opened a vast reservoir of oil worth over $11 billion dollars today. At the time, no where else on earth had seen such monumental success.
And despite the fact that modern oil men use sophisticated synthetic liquids for the same purpose, it is still called mud.
The point of this story is simply this: When you run out of things to do to make your business successful, look inside yourself for answers.
Perhaps you have tried advertising, affiliate sales and countless seminars, but nothing has seemed to work. You Tweet often and you have developed a few followers, but nothing seems to be happening. You’re out of money, tired and frustrated. What do you do now?
Use the mud.
It’s not in the ground and you don’t need cows to make it. It is absolutely free and readily available. You don’t need others to supply it, in fact they can’t. It requires no capital infusion, no employees and no physical plant. And you don’t need to cast your gaze over the pasture land — just close your eyes and think.
Strive for an original idea. But failing that, simply drill down into the vast reservoir of your mind until you find intellectual oil. If you do this often, and you persevere, eventually there will be a trickle — and then a gusher — that will change your business forever.
TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.
My new book, Trajectory, will be published in December, 2011. If you found this article useful, you will love the book. You may read the first chapter, Overview, by clicking here.
PREVIEW TRAJECTORY: To preview the complete Mind View, (conceptual diagram), of the new book Trajectory, click here for a free download.
Trajectory Information
Anticipated Final Publish Date: December 13, 2011.
Anticipated Price: $24.95
AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself, buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials. Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.
Any questions? I am here to help.
If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.
Don’t be shy, be effective instead. Take action.
Simply call the number below. During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.
If I am unavailable, just leave a message.
If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you. Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below. I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.
If you believe your company can benefit from a robust and highly professional Social Media Campaign, complete the following form for no-obligation information and an application.
Request For Proposal
The Runaway Stage and A New Kind of American Hero
A New Kind of Hero
It was 1860 and America had moved west.
Unbroken wilderness was challenging Americans to adapt.
Indian paths had become hazardous trails, trails had become dusty roads and then deeply rutted stage lines — and on this forbidding landscape a new kind of hero emerged.
He was a man of few words, who occasionally stumbled when speaking to a group larger than a few close friends.
For a while he tried ranching or sometimes farming, but his real place was on the edge — where his life and the lives of others depended upon his quick decisions, simple courage and the ability to take action.
He rode stoically through desolate territory on a Stagecoach — the reins firmly in his strong hands, eyes watching the horizon for unexpected potholes and danger.
On nearly every trip the unexpected happened: The road took a sudden turn, a wheel collapsed, or worse the horses sensing trouble bolted into an uncontrolled gallop.
There was no time to plan strategy and no time to prepare. As the runaway stagecoach reeled out of control and careened toward certain injury or death for his passengers, he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands. He uttered a silent prayer and jumped from safety onto the backs of the frightened horses.
A few moments later everything was under control, the danger averted and once again he retook his position of leadership in the driver’s seat, his passengers safe.
He would never be rich or comfortable, but as he continued his journey with his eyes focused on the job at hand, he allowed himself a moment to appreciate the grandeur of the magnificent country he saw stretching out before him.
“This is America”, he thought with fondness and he had a job to do.
Stagecoach the Movie
Many decades later, the famed Hollywood director John Huston immortalized this notion in his movie Stagecoach. John Wayne, a late arrival to the group, had taken the reins and inside the rickety stagecoach were his passengers – a drunken doctor, two women, and a bank manager who had taken off with his client’s money.
As the story and characters developed, it became clear that the essence of this movie was not simply the courage of John Wayne’s character, it was the humanity that resides in all of us.
It’s just a movie of course, but it resonated with the American audience. It made Huston the unequaled champion of the Hollywood western and John Wayne a legend.
But What is the Real Story?
America is, and always will be an adventure.
There are no pat answers, no quick fixes, and sometimes things can get dangerously out of control.
When that happens, it takes a special kind of rugged individualist to make things right.
He may not be polished or urbane, he might not be a shopkeeper or a banker, but he will be a decisive leader — a man who knows how to take action.
When times are tough and the trail is rutted by too many wheels, Americans will naturally ride with a man who will leap onto the backs of the horses.
There may be a modern lesson to be learned from this western drama.
Things in America have not changed much.
Ours is still a simple, principled and courageous country, with brave and resourceful citizens.
Place an obstacle in our path and we don’t get discouraged, we get moving.
We don’t stand on the sidelines and fret, we take the initiative.
We can be a little rough around the edges sometimes, but we generally know what to do — and most importantly, we do it.
Inspirational American Entrepreneurs (Part 1)
The Light of America
In the early 1880′s, America was reeling from an economic catastrophe called the Panic of 1873 — an event that triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States.
The failure of two major banks in the U.S. set off a chain reaction of bank failures and temporarily closed the New York Stock Exchange.
Factories began to lay off workers and America’s railroad industry, long a powerhouse of American growth, was in serious trouble. Of the country’s 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt.
A total of 18,000 businesses failed and unemployment reached 14%.
Construction work halted, wages were cut, and real estate values fell precipitously.
For some it appeared as if the economic light of America was about to be extinguished.
It was a dismal situation, eerily reminiscent of today’s headlines.
Liberty Enlightening the World
Against this backdrop, a young French sculptor, Frédéric Bartholdi, had completed work on a statue he called Liberty Enlightening the World.
It was determined that the French would finance the statue as a gift to America — and all we had to do as Americans was pay for the pedestal which formed its base.
A few years earlier, during a trip to the U.S., Bartholdi had fixed on an island in New York harbor as a site for the statue, struck by the fact that vessels arriving in New York would have to sail past it.
The statue remained intact in Paris pending sufficient progress on the pedestal and by January 1885, the statue was disassembled into 350 pieces and crated for its ocean voyage.
A poet named Emma Lazarus was initially reluctant, but was eventually convinced by a friend that immigrants to the U.S. would be deeply inspired by the statue and her words. She penned a sonnet with this iconic sentiment:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Politics As Usual
Committees were established in the U.S. to fund the pedestal construction, but the project became embroiled in politics as usual.
First, Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, vetoed a bill to provide $50,000 for the statue project and the work was stalled.
A year later, an attempt to have Congress provide $100,000 — an amount sufficient to complete the project — failed when Democratic representatives would not agree to the appropriation.
The New York committee, with only $3,000 in the bank, suspended work on the pedestal.
Once again it appeared that the light of America, this time symbolically represented by a torch destined for New York harbor, was about to be extinguished.
Entrepreneurship Meets the American Spirit.
Many years earlier, an impoverished immigrant from a small village in Hungary, made the journey to America.
After a stint in Lincoln’s Cavalry during the Civil War and an attempt at whaling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he found his way back to New York City where he was flat broke and living on the streets.
At one point he sold his one possession, a white handkerchief, for 75 cents.
Despite his many hardships, this young man was inspired by American Democracy, and by the success he believed to be attainable by a foreign-born immigrant through his own energies and skills.
He became a naturalized citizen and that same year studied law.
Throughout his career he had a mind of his own. Often having difficulty working for others, he worked as a reporter for a small newspaper but eventually decided to go into business for himself. He bought a small share of his employer’s paper — and then with a burst of entrepreneurial fervor, parlayed that investment into several more.
Eventually, as so often happens, his unfettered entrepreneurial spirit and hard work led to greatly increased success.
Finally, in 1883, while so many others were suffering from America’s economic travail, he purchased a losing newspaper called the New York World.
It was at this important place in his business life, as the statue languished in crates on a French pier, that the nexus between entrepreneurship and the American Spirit occurred.
It was destined to change the symbolism of American Democracy and once again ignite the light of America.
The Light of America is Finally Lit
The New York World became a thriving newspaper, and its entrepreneurial owner announced plans to take the required fundraising for the statue directly to the American people. He launched a drive to accomplish what the government had failed to do — raise $100,00 (the equivalent of $2.3 million today) and complete construction.
He pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given, in his widely read newspaper. The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when he began publishing the notes he received from contributors.
“A young girl alone in the world,” came the headlines, “donated 60 cents, the result of self denial.”
Another donor gave “five cents as a poor office boy’s fortune toward the Pedestal Fund.”
A group of children sent a dollar as “the money we saved to go to the circus with.”
Another dollar was given by a “lonely and very aged woman.”
Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York’s rival city of Brooklyn donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons.
A kindergarten class in Davenport, Iowa, mailed the World a gift of $1.35.
And so it went.
Americans from every walk of life, from every section of the country and from every economic class, sacrificed for something that money couldn’t buy: The pride of being Americans.
On August 11, 1885, the World announced that $102,000 had been raised from 120,000 donors, and that 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar.
After the money was raised, and the shipments from France finally arrived, a courageous group of Americans — most from immigrant families like his own — joined forces with the entrepreneurial newspaper owner and began the long process of rebuilding the statue.
They climbed 150 feet into the air above New York Harbor, on a frighteningly high steel skeleton and carefully fitted the 350 pieces in place.
Finally, the greatest and most profound symbol of the American Spirit took her place at the door to New York and America, her torch raised forever as a beacon to the world.
An American Entrepreneur
The Statue of Liberty is much more than an American triumph.
It is the embodiment of what average Americans can accomplish when government gets out of their way.
It is the best example of how Americans will sacrifice when patriotism is their guiding principle.
It is the personification of what entrepreneurs can accomplish, when they are free to follow their dreams.
And it is the epitome of excellence — that special quality that always seems to emerge when American skills and entrepreneurial zeal are allowed to combine and flourish.
This Hungarian-born immigrant — this man most responsible for the iconic American symbol we fondly call The Statue of Liberty – was in the words of the prestigious medal that now bears his name, “an intense and indomitable figure … a passionate crusader against dishonest government … a fierce, hawk-like competitor … and a visionary who richly endowed his profession.”
His name was Joseph Pulitzer and he was an Inspirational American Entrepreneur.
