So I’ve been literally off the grid for the past 6 months working and risking everything I’ve been blessed with. Why? Because of opportunity. There’s an old saying in the country when you’re playing Dominoes: “All money ain’t good money!” Meaning, just because the opportunity is there and it can benefit you, you may end up losing more than you thought and could cost you and your partner the game. So opportunity has to be strategic and must benefit the whole instead of the individual.
Lately brands have had a bad habit of jumping on every conceivable opportunity known to man (especially because of social media) and are failing to calculate on what these opportunities have really afforded them. Most of them have gotten an increase in exposure, but it’s cost them their reputation in return thus losing revenue. And I can go on and on, but remember: “All money ain’t good money!”
MegaMind: At the very beginning of the movie, you see MegaMind seemingly falling to his demise. He begins to describe how his day began and how he arrived this spot. The comic effect is that he starts from the very beginning…of his life. Some brands have horrible beginnings and rise to the top while others begin with a splash and only end up in obscurity. The lessons here is that it doesn’t matter how your start or even finish for that matter. What matters is change. Positive change. Change is necessary and you ride on past successes, you’ll miss out on new opportunities that could possible take your brand to the stratosphere. It’s called “adaptability”. Brands who adapt and embrace change, are brands that will keep winning. Have you see what IBM has done lately? MegaMind isn’t the only one with a giant blue head!
Miyagi: This is all about pruning. I love Bonsai trees. They have to be taken care with pristine care and maintain a very delicate balance between temperature, pruning and growth. They are amazing to grow! We are like that as humans. I was recently “fired” form my last position. I’ve never been in that predicament before, but nevertheless, I thanked my last employer for the opportunity. Why? Because I grew. I was pruned. Sometimes in life, you have to be pruned to grow. We have to be pruned to reach our optimum balance and become who we were truly created to be. That goes the same for brands. Your brand is delicate. I don’t care how many campaigns you’ve crowdsourced, or the amount of Facebook “likes”, the reality is that your brand is delicate and if treat it as such, you will see tremendous beauty and growth. Like the Bonsai tree, your brand has a unique growth pattern. That must be recognized in order to see true ROI I believe. The more you understand about the delicacy of your brand, the better you’ll adapt to change in the market and understand where you’ll experience optimum growth.
Mistakes: I hate making mistakes. Failure can personify mistakes like glaring street signs on the Tokyo drift. You can’t help but notice them. However, mistakes need perspective more than they need reflection. Mistakes are to be learned from. They are to help you grow and provide balance. It’s sort of like when your parents asked you “Now Tommy, did you learn from your mistakes?” Mom always wanted a “yes”. Unfortunately, brands have a bad habit of making mistakes over and over again and wonder why they get the same result in slow growth. Don’t make the same mistakes twice.
So I’m glad I experienced this. I’ve grown. I’ve learned. And I’ve realized that not every opportunity will work out for the best and even in the worst situations, you can rediscover your purpose and why you do what you do. So yes, this was a little deeper than expected, but sometimes a little perspective can contain the perfect shift in the right direction.
