Saturday, April 02, 2005
A little family time
Sure, I did some work today but, since the most notable things that come to mind tonight are family things, I thought I'd switch gears for a night.
My youngest daughter went off to school today, bummed out that "nobody plays April Fools' jokes anymore." Well, my oldest son (whose artistic skills are seen in my One Stop Web Support logo) gave her something to enjoy today as he announced in his blog that he had just gotten engaged (despite not even having a steady girlfriend).
My wife and youngest daughter have been debating all night what it means. Is it his April 1st way of saying that he got cast in a play where he'll play a married man? Is it part of one of his online role-playing games?
They love to speculate, so I'm trying to keep my mouth shut and let them have their fun. As I see it, an April Fool's joke doesn't need to have a big, logical explanation. It's just a joke. But it certainly provided some well-needed entertainment around here. Kudos, Jon, on an inventive April Fool's joke.
My youngest daughter is right, though. I just don't see much done with April Fool's Day anymore. Maybe it's part of how uptight we've gotten as a society. Everybody's so afraid of getting embarassed that no one's willing to take the chance of having a joke fall flat.
It all comes around to one of the elements of human behavior that is key to Internet marketing: fear of loss. It's one of the most powerful motivators, and I see it becoming ever stronger in society.
It seems that people are protecting themselves ever more carefully from situations that could result in some sort of real or imagined loss for them. And the threshold that causes it to kick into place is becoming ever lower.
I keep telling myself I need to write an article on it for the site, because it is so crucial. It would likely be a long one, though, and it's been so much easier to write articles on topics for which I've already put together detailed notes than to start from scratch on issues that I haven't really seen anyone else in marketing dealing with.
But I'll have to address it at some point, as well as the other two aspects of human behavior that I find crucial for marketers to understand: sense of lack and reaffirmation. They've been bouncing around in my head for some time and I need to set them down in some sort of logical presentation.
Oh, and then there are those observations from my screenwriting days: the human hunger for contrast and surprise. If I could do anything I wanted, I'd focus entirely on such human behavior topics. But I feel obligated to lay out the basics for new website owners before I get into areas that I (and my psychology major daughter - yes, another one) have never seen fully explored before.
I think there's a market out there for these kind of insights, but still I'm playing it safe. (Hmm, seems I'm not immune to fear of loss.) The time will come, though, for exploring new ground. It's something inside me that I feel I have to do.
A big part of starting your own business involves struggling to commit yourself fully to your dream and not settle for something less. Hopefully, I can use my own struggles to better understand the problems, and enrich my insights when I finally set myself to putting them out there for all the world to see.
It won't be easy to do that, though. Because revealing insights that are so much a part of me will always be accompanied by the fear of whether the world will reject them (and, by extension, me).
Right now, though, I'll opt for the warmth and safety of my bed.
Jeff
Sure, I did some work today but, since the most notable things that come to mind tonight are family things, I thought I'd switch gears for a night.
My youngest daughter went off to school today, bummed out that "nobody plays April Fools' jokes anymore." Well, my oldest son (whose artistic skills are seen in my One Stop Web Support logo) gave her something to enjoy today as he announced in his blog that he had just gotten engaged (despite not even having a steady girlfriend).
My wife and youngest daughter have been debating all night what it means. Is it his April 1st way of saying that he got cast in a play where he'll play a married man? Is it part of one of his online role-playing games?
They love to speculate, so I'm trying to keep my mouth shut and let them have their fun. As I see it, an April Fool's joke doesn't need to have a big, logical explanation. It's just a joke. But it certainly provided some well-needed entertainment around here. Kudos, Jon, on an inventive April Fool's joke.
My youngest daughter is right, though. I just don't see much done with April Fool's Day anymore. Maybe it's part of how uptight we've gotten as a society. Everybody's so afraid of getting embarassed that no one's willing to take the chance of having a joke fall flat.
It all comes around to one of the elements of human behavior that is key to Internet marketing: fear of loss. It's one of the most powerful motivators, and I see it becoming ever stronger in society.
It seems that people are protecting themselves ever more carefully from situations that could result in some sort of real or imagined loss for them. And the threshold that causes it to kick into place is becoming ever lower.
I keep telling myself I need to write an article on it for the site, because it is so crucial. It would likely be a long one, though, and it's been so much easier to write articles on topics for which I've already put together detailed notes than to start from scratch on issues that I haven't really seen anyone else in marketing dealing with.
But I'll have to address it at some point, as well as the other two aspects of human behavior that I find crucial for marketers to understand: sense of lack and reaffirmation. They've been bouncing around in my head for some time and I need to set them down in some sort of logical presentation.
Oh, and then there are those observations from my screenwriting days: the human hunger for contrast and surprise. If I could do anything I wanted, I'd focus entirely on such human behavior topics. But I feel obligated to lay out the basics for new website owners before I get into areas that I (and my psychology major daughter - yes, another one) have never seen fully explored before.
I think there's a market out there for these kind of insights, but still I'm playing it safe. (Hmm, seems I'm not immune to fear of loss.) The time will come, though, for exploring new ground. It's something inside me that I feel I have to do.
A big part of starting your own business involves struggling to commit yourself fully to your dream and not settle for something less. Hopefully, I can use my own struggles to better understand the problems, and enrich my insights when I finally set myself to putting them out there for all the world to see.
It won't be easy to do that, though. Because revealing insights that are so much a part of me will always be accompanied by the fear of whether the world will reject them (and, by extension, me).
Right now, though, I'll opt for the warmth and safety of my bed.
Jeff
Comments:
Post a Comment
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
