This is a discussion I have been having with a lot of my friends in the online lead generation and B2B sales. The survival attitude is definitely in the air. My theory? That is the number one killer of businesses.
Back in in my Air Force days I went through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) it taught me a lot about Survival, but what it really taught me was how to Escape. You see, we learned in Vietnam that Survival is a death march–the inspiration for the modern SERE training.
So, let’s tie it back to the current business and economic environment. There are too many people looking for ways to survive, instead of escaping. The result is a tightening spiral of failure.
Let’s see if we can find a productive path out of this conundrum.
Survival
Survival is about conserving resources, slowing your movement, and hoping no one notices that you are dying. Escaping is doing something about it!
Certainly a business runs on cash, but you will be amazed in this Web 2.0 what you can do for free. Are you buzzing through social media? Are you writing about solutions? Are your spitting out positive messages in a “doomed” world?
Evasion
Evasion is not about going unnoticed–it is about avoiding the crowd. Let me explain…
I will never forget one of my instructor’s sage advice during my training:
“People are inherently lazy, your enemy will hang out on roads and paths, not trek the terrain–stay away from roads!”
This is exactly what you should be doing. Make your own way and avoid the “death march,” down well traveled roads.
This concept is reinforced by one of my favorite creatives, Hugh MacLeod, in his seminal eBook–How to Be Creative:
“Don’t Try to Stand Out From the Crowd; Avoid Crowds Altogether.”
By the way, he has a book coming out, I can’t wait to get it: Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Resistance
This was my favorite part of SERE, both as a student and later as an instructor. Battling wits with a competitor is exhilarating and the feedback is dynamic. Like a game of chess, the moves may be finite and well defined, but the moment you put a couple of humans into the equation–nearly infinite permutations evolve.
Why is this important? Because the crowd, like an interrogator, will try to convince you to follow their lead. They will try to convince you that your thinking and actions are hopeless, dangerous, and doomed. Sound familiar? Read the newspaper (sorry those are going away)–Google News.
They are the interrogators telling you there is no good news.
Make your own good news. Resist the pull. Make your business give people what they want right now–hope! (Worked for Obama, right?)
Escape
This is the core of this post: Learn to make Escaping the objective, not Surviving.
Start thinking more, talking to smart people more, reading more–try a few innovative projects. Let your software engineers give a few of their passionate ideas a whirl, let the marketing folks get a little edgy, call a client you think you will never land.
Escaping is usually finding the simplest, smallest chink in the wall that can weaken the whole fortress.
Ask Bill Gates about a visual operating system, Marc Andresseen about browsing the Internet in a mouse driven world, Mark Cuban about broadcasting baseball games on the Web, Michael Dell about building custom computers, or Steve Jobs about a little hard drive that plays music through “white” headphones. All escapes from other dark and gloomy economic times.
Leave a comment below tell us what you are doing to Escape. Leave a link to your new Escaping Project. And, forward the post to someone that keeps trying to convince you to survive!
Also, since I am on a quest to talk to more smart people–follow me on Twitter: @billrice and lets chat.
P.S., Jay Weintraub thanks for the inspiration, the nudge, and the chat with a smart person.
About Bill Rice
