Opportunity Is Abundant!

"Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing, that we see too late the one that is open."

Alexander Graham Bell
1847-1922, Inventor

It's no secret that now is a tough time in the economy, but it is a great time to be an entrepreneur, because we can zig and zag around challenges and turn them into opportunities. I think it is important to learn from the large corporations that are failing right now, but it is also important to remember that opportunity is abundant for those of us who can be flexible and seek new paths while others bemoan the old ones.

The Trouble With Choices

New! Improved! More! Better!

Marketers are constantly appealing to our subconscious desire to get the latest and greatest by using the above words to entice us into buying their products.

Interestingly, psychological research exposes a different trend: consumers don't really want new and improved products. What they do want is to feel as if they made the right choice last time they shopped, and are making the right choice this time, too. An over-abundance of new and improved can negatively impact their ability to trust the brand, since they can never really trust whether the current version is truly 'the best.'

In marketing, and in life, there is a fine balance between reinvention and improvement and steady, solid performance.

There is a lot of discussion in our society right now regarding pursuing change while also getting "back to basics." Basic financial accounting, basic values, basic foods. In fact, a lot of times it seems as if even while we're touting concepts that are New! Improved! More! Better!, we are actually seeking the values our grandparents lecture us about.

I think that we are experiencing an important turning point in our society. I don't know where we're headed, but I do hope that we can find a way to value both the new and exciting as well as the tried-and-true.