This is one of the most important articles I will ever write. If you get what Iâm about to say, it will change your life.
Iâm going to give you three examples of something you probably had no idea existed.
Example One
Many years ago, I once consulted with a consulting company (yes, thatâs right, a consulting company hired a consultant; it happens all the time). During a meeting with the two owners of the firm, two crusty, cantankerous old bastards, I laid out three different options they had for an upcoming project we were going to work on.
They quickly got irritated, and said, âCaleb, look. Every time we ask you to do something, you come to us with two or three different options. You lay out the proâs and conâs of each option and give us your recommendations, but leave the decision up to us.â
I said, âYes, thatâs exactly right. Thatâs exactly how I do business. Iâm here to advise, not to decide. I donât own your company. You do. I can give you all the options, lay out all of them in detail, and give you my recommendations, but you have to make the final decision. Right?â
âWrong,â they said, âWe donât want all these options. It just confuses us and wastes time. From now on, when we issue you a project need, we want you to just TELL US what to do. No options. No analysis. Just say, âThis one thing is what you must do, period, end of story.â Okay?â
I argued with them for a bit, saying that wasnât how I did business, unless they wanted to hand me over a significant percentage of stock in their firm, which of course they were not willing to do. Eventually, I let them talk me into it.
A few weeks later they came to me with another project, and during our meeting, I did exactly as they instructed. I gave them one thing to do, and told them they should do that, and nothing else.
They hated my idea and fired me three days later.
Example Two
During my first ârealâ full-time job in the corporate world as a very young man, I worked for a large software company (now long gone) called Central Point Software. Our main software product was a DOS utility (remember DOS?) called PC Tools. I was on a (temporary) market research team involved in asking our customers what they liked and didnât like about our product.
Our customers generally liked the product, but they had one big complaint that came up over and over again; it was too complicated. They overwhelmingly said that there was âtoo muchâ to the product, that it had âtoo many options,â and that the overwhelming number of choices and aspects to the product made it confusing to use.
After processing the results, management had us go back to those same customers who had this complaint. We asked them one simple question. âWhat parts of the product would you like us to take out, in order to make it less confusing for you?â
Almost all of them responded, âTake something out? What the hell? Donât take ANYTHING out! Why would you take something out?!?â
Example Three
Top 40 music radio stations constantly advertise âmore varietyâ in their music, yet they donât actually give you any variety. They just repeat the same small number of songs over and over again.
You might already know this, but you donât know why. Top 40 music radio stations have a secret.
The number one complaint from listeners of Top 40 radio stations is that thereâs too much repetition in the music. So, many stations will try to include more variety. Every time they do this, they lose listeners. People hate the variety and stop listening, and the radio station loses money in ad revenue.
Whenever the radio stations go back to repeating the same crap over and over again, listenership goes up. And people start complaining again.
So today, Top 40 radio stations constantly advertise âmore varietyâ when in fact, they repeat the same crap over and over again. Theyâre just reacting to irrational customers who demand something they donât actually want.
You Donât Know What You Want
You think you know what you want, but you probably donât.
What you think you want might actually be a false construct in your irrational mind, placed there by various sources, such as:
- False Societal Programming
- Obsolete Biological Wiring
- Chemical and/or hormonal imbalances in your body you arenât even aware of
- Trauma from past experiences or relationships
- The need to impress your parents or peers
- Neediness and/or perhaps oneitis for another person or people (especially lovers, family members, or children)
- Your fears
These things are not you. You are not your Societal Programming, your hormones, your fears, your trauma, your parents, or whatever. They are powerful influencers, but they are not you. You are you.
Therefore, if what you think you want is coming from any of these sources, theyâre really not coming from you. Theyâre coming from them.
Thatâs bad. That wonât make you happy, at least not in the long-term.