“I learned that the successful product has to appeal to customers, and the criteria they use to determine what to purchase may have surprisingly little overlap with the aspects that are important during usage. The best products do not always succeed. Brilliant new technologies might take decades to become accepted. To understand products, it is not enough to understand design or technology: it is critical to understand business.”
– Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things
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“Always do three things when you present a Big Idea:
1. Tell them what they are going to see.
2. Show it to them.
3. Tell them, dramatically, what they just saw.
To sell work I could be proud of, I’ve had to rant, rave, threaten, shove, push, cajole, persuade, wheedle, exaggerate, flatter, manipulate, be obnoxious, be loud, occasionally lie, and always sell, passionately!
Abraham Lincoln once said: “When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
To be a successful creative, be prepared for a lifetime fighting bees (even if you sometimes get stung).”
– George Lois, Damn Good Advice
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No one is above selling. We sell ourselves every day.
It might be as simple as worrying about how we are perceived by others. That’s selling. We want people to have a certain impression of us.
We cannot exist without thinking about ourselves in relation to others. Life is not a vacuum but a web.
Some people have mastered the creation of networks, they deliberately spin as big and strong a web as possible.
Others, myself included, neglect those bonds with others. We might seek to build them in our minds with books. But they are the virtual strands of ideas.
It is difficult to seek attention when you have told yourself that you prefer your own company.
But palms need to be greased, audiences need to be entertained for us to succeed in creating anything that lasts.
I have wilfully not sought an audience for this piece, or any of these conversations.
Am I too afraid to sell? Or to miss the mark, or be stung with the indifference of others?
Do I really risk anything in sharing my ideas?
What is the danger of keeping myself off to the side?
There is a fresh pool of water here that is fed by a natural spring of my ideas.
Surely there are some who would appreciate being guided to some light refreshment?
Conversations With Quotations 