I have been writing blogs, conducting webinars, and speaking at conferences for some time. They say this is what you should do to market yourself or your company. Personally, I simply like writing and speaking. I also enjoy an intelligent discussion with educated people. One thing I have always struggled with is divulging too much information. Everyone says that you should blog and tweet, and do whatever else to get your message out, but you know what, I am beginning to think that this is not always a good idea.
I always refer to “when I was an athlete” which these days seems to be getting further and further in the rearview mirror. But when I was an athlete we always depended on secrets. In football, we would never show the other team our playbook. We would run play-action fakes to make the defense think it was a run when we were passing. When pitching, my goal was to fool the batter. I certainly wouldn’t announce to the batter when I was throwing a fastball versus a curve. Fooling the opposition was a part of the strategy. It was something we did to improve our chances of winning.
In business Steve Jobs would fire someone who would disclose their secrets. Apple went way out of their way to keep whatever it was they were doing secret. In technology, everyone has secrets.
The formula for Coca-Cola was created in 1886 yet only a few people know the formula. In fact, the formula is stored in a vault in Atlanta. And Kentucky Fried Chicken has two different companies create half of their herbs and spices recipe each so that neither one knows the whole formula. I don’t think either will be writing a blog disclosing their recipes.
When it comes to business I often refer to a quote from Mark Cuban that says, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. Peter Thiel thinks that the key to a successful business is discovering a “secret” that few others have yet to discover. I agree with them.
So if I were to ask a person what they think the secret to their future success will be I would not expect to get an honest answer. Yes, you will get an answer like “hard work”, or “treating your employees well”, or some other comment that sounds nice that everyone uses. But the key may be in their secrets. Because business is a very competitive environment and to win you need the element of surprise. It works in sports and is critical in war, so why would it not be in business?
I think there are some secrets yet to be uncovered in the benefits business. Secrets that maybe can make the difference in the future of one’s business. But you won’t find those secrets in some blog. You won’t read about them in some industry magazine. You won’t hear them at some broker association meeting or in some little broker group. And those that are tweeting all day probably don’t have something valuable to tweet because if it was that valuable they wouldn’t be tweeting it.
You shouldn’t expect to find any secrets in this blog either. Because the good secrets – the ones that can bring in customers at a rapid pace – the ones that take weeks or months of thinking and years of planning and execution will not be found in the public domain. If you want to find the secrets you need to start looking in the right places. Sometimes those places are staring you right in the face but you don’t see them because your thinking has blinded your vision. In fact, close your eyes. And open your mind. Challenge your thinking. And stop looking on the outside because the answers will come from within. Because to win the game you may need to strike out the next batter. And it may not come from the 92-mph fastball. It may come from the 75-mph curve.
JOE MARKLAND 