From a relationship, alliance and marketing perspective, 2 + 2 = 7 or you shouldn’t pursue it! What in the world am I talking about?
We can waste an incredible amount of time working on marketing ideas and business partnerships and alliances where 2 + 2 = 4. Why bother? If you aren’t going to significantly better your results, why invest time, resources and potentially money into something that is likely to turn out as a negative return on investment when everything is considered? For example, I pursued a potential business alliance that would be the equivalent of each of us contributing the effort of $1 in order to make $2. What’s worse is that I also spent considerable time and wasted energy in the process. With that said, there are times when I still deliberately follow this course if I’m not sure whether it could turn into $7. OR if I am getting enjoyment or some other benefit from the process – money is definitely not all that matters.
On the other hand, I’ve recently had several examples of 2 + 2 = 7. I’m extremely glad I took the opportunity to pursue those alliances/ marketing ideas, as they delivered! I spent much of the Memorial Day weekend working on website updates, and if it wasn’t for the valuable input/ feedback of a relatively new friend and business alliance partner, Andrea, I could easily have spent twice as much time to achieve half the results. Another example relates to a friend from my most recent consulting project, K: we have kept in touch, and I’ve driven 3-4hrs round trip (in bad traffic) on multiple occasions to have lunch and keep in touch. One might wonder if I was off my rocker in terms of time management – and I think some did; however, my friendship and business association has definitely turned 2 + 2 = 7. She is not only a valued friend but she has also helped me overcome what seemed like insurmountable obstacles (isn’t it funny how they usually seem that way at the time?) on numerous occasions. I have not typically been known for pure creativity (re-application in new ways, seeing trends and hidden opportunities I can do, but I’ve typically left pure creativity to the experts). Therefore, I panicked when I had to develop a new graphic for my first case study – had no idea in the world where to start. I might as well have been trying to write in Russian. So, I called my friend and asked for help – of course, she not only helped me think through the process but also had a key benefit to add to another section of the case study that I had overlooked. Since leaping over the first hurdle, I suddenly had the ability to develop the next set of graphics on my own. I could give you at least a 1000 examples….
Have you considered re-thinking how to create an environment where 2 + 2 = 7 for you or your business?