I thought of Buckminster Fuller quote of
“You can't know where you're going until you know where you've been”. The quote
has stuck in my head for a long time. If you understand marketing, any marketer
will look the trends currently and not look back. Every dawn and era did not
come by copying other people, but it came by looking what is not presently
being looked at. History does hold the key to understanding trends of the past.
These trends do repeat themselves again and again.
There are the trailblazers and entrepreneurs
that come with new ideas. They look back to the past and see what has not been
done and what is not currently being done. They study these macro trends that
happen over decades and years. These trends highlight the problems that are not
mainly obvious to the public. Lastly, they just ignored altogether.
I like the idea of looking historical
trends especially in marketing data. It gives me ideas of what has not been
tried before. For every problem is there is a solution out there. I believe
that is especially true that you can’t know where you are going until you look
to the past for answers and currently as well. Longer term trends don’t fizzle out like the
short term trends do. They just sit there and get ignored. Most of all, you can
see it all the time by looking what every market tries to hop what is hot for
the moment and ignore the longer term trends. The longer trends produce better
income longer term rather than a short term trend
A short term trend fizzles like a candle in
the wind. It lasts but a second. We live in a society where the short term
trends take precedent over the long term trends. I see it all the time. An
entrepreneur in my opinion ought to be
looking at longer term trends rather than short term trends that will last but
short time. There is this fear created if that one does not hop onto the short
term that you have missed the boat completely. Here is the problem with that
type of thinking many end-up missing the source buzz that really is creating
fear. Fear is one those emotions that to be kept in check when starting
business venture. It makes you do really dumb things. Once a short term trend
has made the buzz, and the smart money has already left and moved on and
evaluated it on its one merits whether they are good or bad. The short term
thinking doesn’t see the big picture and can’t see the history nor is it
interested in the longer term trends.
A free mind and open mind to longer term
trends and learning from history is the best remedy for such craziness. It is
like the movie,” Brewster’s Millions” where the Richard Pryor’s uncle offered
him a chance for a big reward or the little reward. Most people would take the
wimp clause as Hume Cronyn put it in the movie. Because a majority of society
wants the quick fix much like a drug addict chasing after a heroin fix. Richard
Pryor in the movie, “Brewster’s Millions” chose the larger prize because it had
larger implications. I recommend seeing the movie if you have not. There is a message
in the movie anyone starting business can learn from the movie that bigger
opportunities lead to bigger rewards. It
is the fear that we don’t go after the short term that we won’t be successful. This
has been perpetrated by the media and marketers looking for the fast buck to a
larger extent. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are plenty of
opportunities worth pursuing out and can carve niche that has not ventured into
and no one is looking at it.
It has always been long term thinking and
looking where we are going from the past that has guided the rest. There are market niches not created yet and they
are waiting to be address. All it takes is one person to create a niche and
thousand others to hop on board to do the rest.
We can see this time and time again.
Without studying the larger trends and knowing the history, you really cannot
know where are heading until the past is looked at. Change is like water. Water
is the most fluid substance on the planet. Change is the status quo. Water can change form and become the object
that it occupies. Water can be still or erupt violently or crash things. It is
that fluidness that drives it forward. It is being able adapt to changing
conditions while understanding the past. This is what creates the long term
thinking and seeing the bigger picture.
Don’t forget to check out the great select of
entrepreneurial books off this website. It offers a great selection of ripples
of motivation that can be used every day. If you like the information that has
been presented, bookmark this page and the Texas Trade Report Blog in your
favorites and send link to it to everyone you know. Blog about it on Facebook,
Twitter it to friends and family. That is the way it unfolds.
No comments:
Post a Comment