Photo compliments of orlandk
Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame baseball catcher, was famous for saying things that didn’t seem to make much sense, at least at first.
It’s easy to laugh at some of his remarks because they sound nonsensical. How can it get late early? And whatever does “It ain’t over till it’s over” mean?
However, when you stop to think about them for a while, it turns out those silly sayings were really quite wise.
No, really they were.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it”
Pick your path, don’t try to go down two roads at once. Find your niche, and your passion, and pursue it. Yogi was passionate about baseball, and had enough World Series championship rings for each finger on both hands. When you love what you do (and focus your energies on doing it), you will succeed.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”
Make a marketing plan, and follow it. For example, write an ebook to build an audience, have them sign up for your newsletter, and then eventually purchase other products or services.
“It gets late early out there”
The Web has sped everything up. Wait too long to respond to a customer complaint or a service problem and the twitterers will let you know. If you don’t post on your blog for three weeks, or answer comments, readers will go elsewhere.
“That place is so popular, nobody goes there anymore”
When you lose your focus, you’ll lose your customers too. Starbucks built an image and a “tribe” by brewing coffee that was different from ordinary deli coffee, offering more ways to customize it, and a welcoming atmosphere. Then, they expanded too much, tried to overcome it with discounts, and now… well there are more interesting places to get coffee in New York (with beans that have been roasted in the last 10 days, or coffee ground to order).
What do you think? Was Yogi right? Am I?
I agree with “most” of your points here.
It’s true that you have to ,
And once you get too big, you’ll be susceptible to self-complacency. You see it all the time with brands that went from underdog to empire and lost their focus along the way.
Way to go, Yogi Berra 🙂
.-= Mars Dorian´s last blog ..Whatever you think, think the opposite =-.
Hi Mars,
Which ones do you disagree with?
(Only 23 days until opening day)!
Nice compilation and I agree with you. Here are a couple more:
“I never said most of the things I said.”
– It seems simple and easy to use twitter, blogs and other social media tools, but the fact is that you can’t go back on your word. Once it’s published online, it’s there forever!
“You can observe a lot by just watching. ”
– Before jumping into every new marketing hype out there, see if it really fits your company’s goals, and whether it makes good business sense. Just because all your friends are on Twitter, doesn’t mean your customers and prospects are there too.
.-= Daniel Kuperman´s last blog ..Email Design Review Gallery =-.
Hi Daniel,
Great additions! Going to check out your email post.
Jodi, Yogi was so well known for the twisty truth-within-a-tangle of his statements that a bunch of wayward quotes were attributed to him that he never even said. That’s fame! He and Casey Stengel should have had a reality show together. Thanks for tying in his wonky wisdom with today’s thinking.
The Casey and Yogi Show! That would have been hilarious.
Nice use of the quotes Jodi.
We can receive inspiration and guidance from anywhere from anyone and from any circumstance. It all depends on your perspective.
.-= Robyn from Sam’s Web Guide´s last blog ..Is Your Blog User-Friendly? Avoid Deadly Mistakes Many Bloggers Make =-.
Robyn, I get inspiration from something I see in a store window, books, blog comments, all sorts of places. I started carrying a little notebook so I could write them down!