I wrote this a while back…thought I would put it on my blog.   Sitting on the plane on my way back to South Carolina to pick up my family.  I just finished the book “Poke The Box” by Seth Godin.  Seth has written many books (like 13) and I have pretty much read all of them.  Much of what he writes is under 200 pages, thought provoking and riddled with takeaways that can be applied to what we do in radio.

The book “Poke The Box” is a compilation of short examples and stories of people, businesses and ideas that provoke the reader to do something that might be uncomfortable…actually follow up on your ideas.  It is meant to push you to fail, learn, win and share.  When someone is “poking the box”, they are essentially challenging the norm or pushing themselves (and often others) to create and share without holding back.  To “ship” your ideas and thoughts out into the world without worrying about failure or ridicule. There’s a quote from Siddhartha Gautama at the end of the book that I felt was pretty effective in summing up the 84 pages (yes it is that short)…”There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.  Not going all the way, and not starting”.

Too often we get marred in the day to day and get stuck in ruts that prevent us from creating and “shipping” out our ideas to the world.  At times it is easiest to just do what we have always done, make few waves, and just survive change while it is happening around us.  It’s much easier to allow change to happen to us than to be the catalyst of change.  To some people…being in a rut is safe.  

That’s not for me.  I encourage change.  I welcome it and look for opportunities to make myself (and others) think differently.  We have to challenge each other to be creative, inventive and to not be afraid of “shipping” our ideas.  Me sending this email to all of you and encouraging you to share it with others is an example of trying to effect culture and not fear the potential eye rolling ridicule that may occur.  I would encourage others to do the same.  

We don’t need to execute change for the sake of change, but we should challenge each other to mentally walk outside of the norm.  Instead of asking a client the same questions about their business, ask them how their business has changed and what they are doing to be in front of it.  Promotionally we should always re-examine events and concepts to make sure we are executing at the highest level and look to eliminate roadblocks that prevent us from surpassing our goals.  Talent needs to focus on reinventing benchmarks, bits and contests to make sure that ruts are not occurring.  Do things differently and examine the success versus the ” way we’ve always done it”.  Ideas and concepts that lack passion or buy in are easily forgotten by the masses.  

Many of you probably already do this.  We are successful and that means that the players involved are creative and most likely challenge others to be creative as well.  Good.  In time,  you will find I am a planter of seeds that are meant to get people thinking.  Doing the same thing over and over again without taking a moment to inject new perspective is called a rut.  Sometimes stepping outside of your comfort zone will cause you to fail….and thats ok.  No idea was ever created or life that has ever been lived has been successful without some degree of failure.  It’s healthy.  

Don’t be afraid to fail.  Failure means you did something differently. Keep it up.  Be a catalyst of creativity.  Ship your ideas to others.  Goals become real once they are shared.   Poke the box…ship your ideas…see what happens.   Thanks for taking the time to read my latest novel.  I am not creating an idea; rather I am “shipping” and sharing in order to help encourage the team to not be afraid to share ideas and think openly and creatively.  Feel free to share this with others if you feel they could benefit from these words…or just bypass this and keep moving….my feelings won’t be hurt.