5 ms·

“You Can’t Do It” is Powerful Motivation

53 points by atularora 16y ago

rgrieselhuber 16y ago
Quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs, just for the honesty and openness Rand writes with.
- InfinityX0 16y ago
  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfee-tenets http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfe... Rand's style there piles over into his SEOMoz philosophies, which, not surprisingly, he's also pretty open about.
skmurphy 16y ago
He needs to turn this into a positive narrative. The Germans have an aphorism: "Stubbornness is the energy of fools." He should reframe this as a persevering focus on his prospect's needs. Sam Walton suggested an approach Rand might consider in his ten rules for building a successful business: Rule 10: Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you’re headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long. I blogged about this in http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/02/01/focus-on-your-prospects-pain-not-the-brilliance-of-your-product-idea/ http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/02/01/focus-on-your-prospe...
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  It's still good to be able to recognize when you're trying to swim up a waterfall rather than just upstream though.
terra_t 16y ago
I've got a rule that "If it's not impossible, it's not worth doing." If most people think that what you're doing is impossible, you've got less competition.
TotlolRon 16y ago
"Now my body says, 'You can't do this boy' But my pride says, 'Oh, yes you can'." -- Toby Keith, As Good As I Once Was. 2005.
Supermighty 16y ago
Or, sometimes, it makes things worse.
- Supermighty 16y ago
  But then again that all depends on the person, and their own personal outlook.
patio11 16y ago
My dad said something similar when I was starting out. He apologizes for it at least once a year. (I totally don't hold it against him, don't worry.) While I generally don't let People Are Wrong On The Internet get to me, I have one exception: I am by nature a curmudgeon and keep a list in a notebook of predictions along the lines of "You will never sell X of this software." It is eleven lines long at the moment, and has eight smiley face stickers. I think I'm getting another sticker for Christmas.

53 points by atularora 16y ago

rgrieselhuber 16y ago

Quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs, just for the honesty and openness Rand writes with.

InfinityX0 16y ago
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfee-tenets http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfe... Rand's style there piles over into his SEOMoz philosophies, which, not surprisingly, he's also pretty open about.

skmurphy 16y ago

He needs to turn this into a positive narrative. The Germans have an aphorism: "Stubbornness is the energy of fools." He should reframe this as a persevering focus on his prospect's needs. Sam Walton suggested an approach Rand might consider in his ten rules for building a successful business: Rule 10: Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you’re headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long. I blogged about this in http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/02/01/focus-on-your-prospects-pain-not-the-brilliance-of-your-product-idea/ http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/02/01/focus-on-your-prospe...

sliverstorm 16y ago
It's still good to be able to recognize when you're trying to swim up a waterfall rather than just upstream though.

terra_t 16y ago

I've got a rule that "If it's not impossible, it's not worth doing." If most people think that what you're doing is impossible, you've got less competition.

TotlolRon 16y ago

"Now my body says, 'You can't do this boy' But my pride says, 'Oh, yes you can'." -- Toby Keith, As Good As I Once Was. 2005.

Supermighty 16y ago

Or, sometimes, it makes things worse.

Supermighty 16y ago
But then again that all depends on the person, and their own personal outlook.

patio11 16y ago

My dad said something similar when I was starting out. He apologizes for it at least once a year. (I totally don't hold it against him, don't worry.) While I generally don't let People Are Wrong On The Internet get to me, I have one exception: I am by nature a curmudgeon and keep a list in a notebook of predictions along the lines of "You will never sell X of this software." It is eleven lines long at the moment, and has eight smiley face stickers. I think I'm getting another sticker for Christmas.