003 The Invisible Touch – Data Misleads

Research And Its Limits

"Research supports mediocre ideas and kills great one."

That is how Harry Beckwith closes this section of his first chapter (about Research And its Limits) in The Invisible Touch.

Put yourself in the shoes of innovators talking about a new concept. Mr. Beckwith wrote about Disneyland/ Disney World, the personal computer, and Fed Ex.

Imagine that you'd never seen Disneyland or Disney World (of course it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to imagine that, but play along with me). All based on a rodent and his cartoon pals. Would you spend big bucks to travel to visit it and even more for a room nearby?

And the personal computer – put a small tan box on your desk with a black and white TV-type monitor on it, learn how to type a weird code called DOS, and then type letters and spreadsheets that you can print on your dot-matrix printer (whatever THAT was) whenever you wanted it. Who really thought THOSE would take off when they were first introduced (come on… the Commodore 64 was a toy compared with these – and that did NOTHING to help people understand how the world was changing)?

What about Federal Express, which Fred Smith put forth in a project at Harvard – when it absolutely, positively has to be there over night. And the idea of picking up a package from you in, say, Boston, flying it to a central-sorting location in Memphis, TN, and then back out to your client in San Diego, CA seemed ridiculous. Hey, what was wrong with the postal service anyway (and since the Post Office was losing BILLIONS of dollars, how would you make any money from this anyway?).

In my own world, I remember being the one to greet someone in our office at Jackson-Cross Company (where I would go on to head up marketing for the firm and be responsible for a quarter of a billion dollars in personal sales). This person told me that the federal court system had just deregulated the phone system and he could guarantee me that he could save us LOTS of money on our phone bill and we wouldn't have to change any of our equipment.

Yep – that was my introduction to MCI.

I kept wondering what the "catch" was… but I said we'd try it and the first month we saved about 50% of the cost of long distance from AT&T – you DO remember that ALL phone service was with AT&T, right? Forget the Baby Bells – they didn't exist yet.

And I purchased my own Personal Computer in 1982 and immediately started working in direct-response marketing to contact prospects in an organized way.

Then it was Bulletin Boards and CompuServe… wow, have things changed.

Could I Have Believed The Research If I Had Been Part Of A Focus Group?

Why are some of us early adopters and some only join in after the "tipping point" of acceptance?

Why did I purchase an AMC Gremlin and Pacer (OK… stop the snickering, please!), a new style Ford (TWICE – the Contour and the Escape), Oldsmobile (Ciera), Cadillac (Cadillac), and BMW (320i)? Why did I purchase my Nikon D2x when it first came out? Why did I adopt Social Marketing quickly when I saw the potential?

Why have I been the first time owner (or occupant) of a loft apartment in a converted warehouse, a center city, new-construction condo a few blocks away, and a townhome where we now live in the suburbs (on ground that once held a mill)?

IF I KNEW, I'd bottle it and sell it to all my friends.

Be Careful Of Research

Unlike lots of my male friends, however, I read the manuals, the sales materials, the specs about a new product. I do LOTS of research before purchasing… and then I make a quick decision to go or not to go.

So while most of us purchase with emotion and justify with logic, I like to read, feel, dream, get a sense of what I'm about to do, and then I go DO it.

Read it with the gut.

I love the expression that there are NO experts only those with informed opinions – heck, my Dad made a great career out of being an elite real estate appraiser; however, when when he testified in court about the value of the Penn Central Railroad after his appraisal was complete, the "other side" waltzed out THEIR "experts" who said something different.

Dream, Plan, Scheme, Think – and then get moving. It's not failure, it's feedback – you DEFINITELY will be wrong LOTS of times, but no one ever won the game sitting on the sidelines.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

Follow Charlie Seymour Jr On Twitter!

Keep this with this article, please:

Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

Friends, if you like this post, please leave a comment, join our email list to get updates sent to you, and retweet it. And I've made it easy to retweet – just click on the icon below. Thanks!

003 The Invisible Touch – Data Misleads