Another Brick in Your Own Personal Wall?
IT marketing has a subconscious rock and roll element. Have you ever seen Pink Floyd: The Wall? This is a film that came out in the 80s which is basically a rock ballad functioning as a 90-minute music video. The film has some downright strange animation, but it additionally makes a very interesting metaphysical point pertaining to human psychology.
In the film, “Pink,” who is played by an Irishman who doesn’t traditionally sing on the band’s albums, but is representative of Roger Waters’ mental perspective, goes through a series of experiences which build a mental wall around him. His father dies in WWII. His mother is overbearing. He marries an unfaithful woman, and his band becomes famous; so even though he’s got it all, that which he values most is beyond his grasp.
He builds up a mental wall around him based on his dashed expectations, then shaves off his eyebrows and becomes a neo-Nazi under a banner of marching hammers. Quite a normal plot arc for a person’s life, right? But all joking aside, this is a very real thing that happens to regular people, and even businesses. As a matter of fact, businesses are especially susceptible.
Application
A business may have hopes or dreams and then head down a path they think will get them where they want to be. But they entertain “brick” IT marketing thoughts. They build up a wall against success every bit as terrible as Pink’s wall between himself and the world. These businesses have negative feelings about the achieving of their goals, and so poison their own well.
People are creative beings. We make books, movies, works of art, symphonies, public structures, skyscrapers, pyramids, cruise ships, space shuttles— mankind makes everything! And a lot of those items listed wouldn’t have happened if the negative-Nancy naysayers had their way. But those negative naysayers definitely exist in small businesses, and they voice their fear, doubt, and sometimes personal laziness in a way which plants poisonous mental spores in the mind of marketing officials. When this happens, brick thoughts get in the way of success. Managers begin to think of the doubts that have been raised, rather than the available possibilities, and how to overcome obstacles. That’s where the greatest success lies: realizing obstacles and overcoming them.
Getting above this involves cognizance of the reality. You’ve got to understand what these thoughts are, where they come from, and how to fight back against them. If you can do that, then you can flip them around so that they are positive. You can break through the wall and to the successful pastures which lie beyond. They say that we are our own worst enemies. Well, especially in small business ventures that have yet to establish themselves, this is a very true sentiment.
Achieving Success
Don’t be like “Pink” from The Wall. Don’t keep putting bricks up between you and success. What you’ve got to do is:
• Realize there are “brick thoughts”
• Expel this kind of thinking from your marketing model
• Adopt an attitude of success
• Overcome, don’t be overcome, by challenges
• Foster positive attitudes
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