Kudos to you! I assist entrepreneurs in starting and growing their business, and I agree with you 100%.

One of the problems is that people see the successes of YouTube, etc. and think that that kind of growth (or even a fraction of it)will happen to them. What they need to understand is that these companies are the ones that "won the lottery jackpot."

The public does not see the many thousands of struggling startups, for the simple reason that they are not in the public view.

I tell my clients that the three most important words in marketing are "strategy," "campaign," and "want." They need to get people to want their product through a well-thought-out strategy that is implemented in a long-term campaign.

Here's a good way I have found to get the points above across to dis-believers: I tell an audience that I will bet anyone $10,000 that if they go out and buy a lottery ticket, they will not win the jackpot. Now, we all know that people win jackpots... it happens all the time, and we see them on Oprah.

Well, we also see the wildly successful entrepreneurs on Oprah, don't we? However, this is not an indicator of what we should expect in our own lives.

BTW, nobody has ever taken me up on my bet, which is a very serious offer!
Steven Overholt | Homepage | 03.05.07 - 7:52 am | #

Steve, that is an awesome analogy to lottery winners. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket and use it down the road

Btw - no one (hopefully) is stupid enough to take that bet.
Adam | Homepage | 03.06.07 - 8:53 pm | #