Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise

Question #3: Bad To The Bone

The final installment of the immutable trio I call "The Questions" is the series' simplest...yet most profound.

You see, you can answer the other two majestically, and still fall flat in making them real by falling flat on this closer.  As business and/or life success goes, Question #3 is "The Last Mile," the difference between thinking or doing, between mere conception and gritty delivery. This is the one you ask yourself while staring at your reflection in the mirror.  To wit:

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

This is the simple choice between doing what you want to do, or doing what you have to do.  It's working the weekend vs. another visit to the mall.  It's going to the gym vs. sleeping in.  It's ordering the grilled trout and vegetables vs. the smothered steak and fries.  It's doing homework with your kids vs. watching the game on TV.

You get the drill.  And believe me, you know the question.

The tough part is the answer.

This is what separates the victory laps from the starting line stalls, the satisfaction of "did" from the excuse of "could've."  As my business partner Garner is oft to point out: "Ideas are cheap.  Execution is invaluable."

Let's face it, sometimes you may not want it that badly.  And that's fine if that's your answer. Your prerogative.

But don't lie to yourself when it comes to Question #3.  Don't answer "Really bad!" yet live "I don't really care."

You know all the clichés about inspiration and perspiration, about the harder you work the luckier you get.

If you've gotten as far as Question #3, answer it truthfully.

And then move on.

So there we go.  Three ephemeral blog posts?  Or the basis, the foundation for my next book, speech or movement?

Guess it depends...

On how bad I want it.

ONE LAST RE-CAP!

Question #1:   What is the gift you give?
Question #2:   Is this worth that?
Question #3:   How bad do you want it?

Question #2: The Word on Worthiness

Well, I got myself into this last week, so I guess I should continue...

Motivation may have "The Secret"; business has "The Questions."  And the way I see it, there are three of them that need to be answered not just for success, but for the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you're actually doing something positive with your working day...and your working life.

The inspiration for the second question comes from conversations I used to have with my late buddy, comedian Richard Jeni.  A complex man of much introspection, Jeni and I would spend hours on the balcony of his Hollywood high-rise condo, ruminating on how life was a series of trade-offs. 

Trade-offs like:

"Yes, the weather in L.A. is spectacular, but then there are those things called earthquakes."

"Yes, the you can choose not to be sucked up into the vortex of the Hollywood lifestyle, but you'd have to live in some small town in Idaho, and lord knows it's hard to base a showbiz career there."

And on we would go for hours, always coming to the same conclusion: Life is a portfolio--there are wins and losses, and true peace only comes to those who can accept the balance between the two.

So here's Question #2, a quick ponder with mammoth ramifications:

IS THIS WORTH THAT?

Many times, we never ask the question and have to pick up the aftermath pieces of the answer; in other words, "Well, that wasn't worth it..."   Too bad.  Just a little proactivity can prevent a whole maelstrom of post-negativity. 

There is no easy way out, and nothing without consequences.  The current financial meltdown could've benefited big time--and possibly have been avoided--from a little time spent reflecting on Question #2. (Can't say we weren't warned--"Wanna keep your money safe?  Then accept a 3% annual return.  Want more than that?  Gotta take a risk."  Hey, as I said, it's all about trade-offs.) 

Even the basic premise of this blog--creating Surprise--works best with a "Is This Worth That?" filter.   By its very nature, you know that a Surprise is a game changer.  You just have  to decide how much game you want to change. Without it, you're status quo and boring.  But if you go too far... (As I've said before, Surprise is like nitroglycerin; a little bit gets your heart pumping, too much blows up in your face.)

No matter what you do, want to do, are thinking of doing...every action could benefit from a bit of reflection upon the four RED words above that together make up Question #2. 

Frankly, asking it is the easy part.

The tough part is accepting your answers.

So, to re-cap:

Question #1:   What is the gift you give
Question #2:   Is this worth that?
Question #3:   Coming next week

Theory 21 and Question #1--Giving The Gift (A Lesson From Len)

My friend Len Blum is a former screenwriter (Private Parts, The Pink Panther to name just two) and a current yoga instructor.  He's also one of the wisest guys I know...and I mean that not in a Mafioso way.

At lunch last week, Len's zen-like manner managed to sum up in six words the solution to the age old problem: how do I sell something?

Before enlightening you, let me put everything into context.  We were discussing a video project he had pitched to an author, who's one and only question to Len was the succinct: "Will it sell books?"

Len's answer to him was simple, and brutally honest:  "I don't know."

That's not the enlightening part.

But as a guy who is overseeing four new product initiatives at Airborne Mobile, not to mention anxiously awaiting the February launch of my oft-mentioned Pow! book, the obsession on how to best sell something--and better still, to know how it will sell in advance--eats away at me incessantly.

So here's what Len said that threw me for a loop:  If you really want to know if what you have is going to sell, ask yourself this:

"WHAT IS THE GIFT YOU GIVE?"

It's really that simple, that profound, and that difficult.  All in one.

What are you giving your customer, your client, your audience, that they will un-wrap?  That they will cherish?  That they will display and show others?  That they will care about?

The gift is not a feature, or a gimmick, or an add-on.  It's the core of the product or service itself.  It's the thing that bonds it to someone who will buy it. And no matter if you're selling something that can slide into a wallet or be too big for an airplane hangar, the gift is not the physicality, but the intangible. 

Too often, we get caught up in systems.  In what has worked before.  In process.  But that was then.  This is now.  And as our financial markets show us, even when we know, we never really learn.

Taking this one step further, it's one of the key integral questions of business (the other two will be the subject of future posts...and perhaps the basis of my next book).  So before you make your next move, no matter what you're selling, ask yourself Question #1:  What is the gift you give?

And if you're not delighted with the answer...you'd better keep shopping