Do Something Amazing!

"Leading is a tough thing to describe or quantify."

--U.S. Representative Jane Lakes Harman

Yesterday, I had the honor of attending my niece's graduation from Smith College -- Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. The family has taken to calling her the "stealth student" because of how she makes no big deal out of her accomplishments. So hearing the commencement speaker hold herself out as an example of success made me wonder if self-described role models make good role models.


That speaker was U.S. Representative Jane Lakes Harman, a leading Congressional expert on terrorism and security issues. You can read her speech here. I'll leave it for you to decide what impact she and her colleagues are having in Congress.

We spend a lot of time in marketing "explaining" success. (White paper anyone?) The thing is, if you are really successful, you don't need to explain it. Other people will gladly do it for you -- if only to compare themselves to role models that work.

If you provide a product or service, and you want to impress a customer -- here's a strategy that will only fail if the customer is someone you are better off not having as a customer in the first place: do something amazing. Do something that is without question truly remarkable. If you really are not a commodity, that should not be a problem.

The strategy also works in reverse. If you are a buyer and you want to test a vendor or service provider — ask them to actually produce something great. Again, if there's value there, they should welcome the challenge.

When you think about it, the go-ahead-impress-me test is itself pretty amazing. No explanations required.